Diane asked Darryl Greer:

Have your very early occupations become part of your novels? I admire your adventurous spirit . I live in Ottawa, Canada. I also write, but it is poetry, columns in community newspapers, mainly about the arts of all kinds, women's issues and other issues. What advice can you give me for writing an autobiographical novel? -ok-so that's 2 questions... Thank you, Diane Stevenson Schmolka..

Darryl Greer Thank you for your interest, Diane. I think writers use their life's experiences in their novels, however good or bad they may be. Yes, I've drawn upon some of my own experiences in writing my books. Sometimes a little bit of me turns up in a character, both good and bad ones. If you look at my Profile here on Goodreads you'll see the type of books I generally write -- all thrillers of some kind or other. My latest, "Bounty" is a political thriller set in Lebanon, Israel, Iran and Australia. By the way, it is available free as a Kindle download at present -- expires midnight July 20 U.S. Pacific Time. As for the second part of your question, I take it you have in mind a work of fiction but based on your own life's experiences. I wouldn't see that as any different from writing any other kind of fiction. i.e. character bios, an overall summary of the story, then a detailed plot outline, all the usual things one does before embarking on the actual writing. And, of course, research. If you are talking about a memoir, an actual autobiography, I happen to writing my own at present and the way I have set about doing this is to write up a time line of all major events in my life and then to chronologically go through it and expand. I plan to publish that early next year. I wish you all the best with your writing.

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