ME ME ME: Tips For Making Autobiographical Work!

Autobiographical work is on my mind these days. I’m in the middle of writing a book based on my autobiographical solo show, The Ex-Boyfriend Yard Sale.

I’ve also taught many artists through my Solo Show Creation Lab who were creating their own autobiographical work.

These artists often express fear that their autobiographical work is self-indulgent — That it’s not worthy of a platform.

They worry that it’s therapy not art, or a dairy rather than a show and therefore won’t have relevance or value.*

Not to mention the vulnerability of bringing your personal experiences to an audience and the potential of contending with your family’s reactions … [shudders]. Yikes.

To help combat and safeguard against those worries, here are my...
 

Top 6 Tips for Creating Autobiographical Art

  1. Process your life before turning it into art - no rush!
    The time to create art based on your life is not when you’re still dealing with grief or trauma. In my experience, artists need one year minimum between an event in their life (positive or negative) before they have the necessary arm’s length view to begin turning it into art. Listen to your intuition and take heed of what your body tells you.

    For me therapy has been essential for this. But however you do it, you require space and time to process your feelings on your own, without deadlines or artistic collaborators or audiences interfering. 


     

  2. Get your inner critic under control
    If you have a voice in your head telling you no one will care about your show, you need to get that voice in check so you can actually get down to work without being constantly riddled with doubt. 

    This is is an ongoing, lifelong process. Begin it today! Read my mail out on smashing the inner critic here. My most practical rec is to ask yourself where fear, nastiness or doubt live inside the work itself?  Aim to embrace them in the art rather than let them be a barrier.
     

  3. Be diligent about structure
    Diaries and journals aren’t often constrained by story structure. They’re sprawling accounts with peaks and valleys and boring bits. To avoid the trap, work hard on the narrative structure of your piece. I highly recommend Dan Harmon’s Story Circles and Stephen Jeffreys’ amazing book ‘Playwriting’.
     

  4. Don’t tell us how you felt; tell us what you did and said
    This is good writing practice in general, but when drawing from your own life, it’s very useful if you're at all concerned about "indulging".  It’ll keep you away from dwelling on feelings and throw you into action and behaviour.
     

  5. Create healthy boundaries with your family and friends
    If the thought of having certain family or friends in the audience is freaking you out, listen to your instincts. You’re allowed to tell certain people to not come to your shows, especially early on.  This is a form of self-care. I recommend telling those people earlier rather than later. Use “I” statements to explain that it’s about your comfort with the material (i.e. don’t blame them for being uptight/judgemental etc).

  6. CHANGE ALL THE NAMES
    People, places, descriptions. Swap ‘em out for equally specific but different things. It will protect and free in many ways.


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