How to Turn Your Story of Trauma into a Novel

Do you have a burning desire to share your story? After surviving a terrible trauma and learning to thrive, you believe you can help others do the same. However, you are gripped with fear because putting your story out there for the world to see is fraught with peril, and you worry: What will others think of me? What if it embarrasses my family? What if someone tries to sue me? How can I protect my loved ones and myself? There is a solution: write it as a novel, like I did. In fact, countless novels contain some autobiographical components.

Fiction Writing Tips: Show vs. Tell

For beginning fiction authors, one of the most important—and hardest—techniques to master is how to show the story through action and dialogue rather than telling the story through internal thoughts and emotions. While the latter isn’t inherently bad or forbidden, we can engage our readers much more by pulling them into the story directly by showing them what’s going on rather than telling them about it. That gives them something they can see, imagine, and experience, which will inspire them to keep that book in their hands. And that’s exactly what we want to do with our fiction!