When the Real World Slips Into the Mic

One of the constants in my writing life is that real experiences are fundamental in my fiction. Sometimes it’s a location I know well. Sometimes it’s a conversation I once had, or a character trait borrowed from someone I met years ago. It’s never a direct lift, and it’s never the whole story. Just threads woven into the fabric of the novel.

That’s always felt natural. Safe, even. Fiction gives you room to reshape things, to explore them from different angles, to let them become something else entirely.

But on The Story Behind My Stories, there isn’t that same layer of distance. When I talk about what inspired a scene or why a character behaves the way they do, I’m talking about the real experiences behind it. Not the fictionalised version. Not the softened one. The actual starting point.

Speaking the reality behind the books

And usually, that’s fine. Most of the time, the experiences I draw from are neutral or positive — moments of growth, interesting encounters, places that stuck with me. Easy to talk about. Easy to share.

This week was different.

Why These Episodes Feel Heavier

I recorded the final two episodes of Season 4 for Lethal Leith Hill at the weekend, and the themes behind those chapters come from more difficult parts of my past. They touch on infidelity, exploring sexual orientation and physical abuse in a relationship — experiences that shaped the emotional logic of the book.

In the novel, those elements are expanded, twisted, exaggerated, or flipped on their head. That’s the nature of fiction. But on the podcast, I’m talking about the real starting points. The moments that sparked the ideas. The lived experiences that sat underneath the fictional ones.

And while I’m comfortable using those experiences creatively, speaking about them directly — even briefly, even with context — is a different thing entirely.

Not a Crisis, Just a Consideration

I’m not agonising over it. I’m not having a dramatic “should I or shouldn’t I” moment. It’s more a practical pause: these topics are sensitive, and unlike the usual behind‑the‑scenes stories, they come from the more negative end of life experience rather than the uplifting or amusing ones.

That doesn’t make them off‑limits. It just means I’m thinking more carefully about how I talk about them.

The deeper exploration — the fuller context, the longer reflections — will sit better in the book‑length memoir series I’m developing. That format gives space, nuance, and time. The podcast, by contrast, is a snapshot: here’s the experience that fed into the fiction, here’s how it shaped the story, here’s why it mattered.

Where I’ve Landed

These episodes will still go out. They’re honest, they’re relevant to the novel, and they’re part of the creative process just as much as the lighter inspirations are. The difference is simply that these come from the harder chapters of my life rather than the easier ones.

And that’s part of writing too.

Not everything that shapes a book is comfortable. Not everything that informs a character arc comes from a pleasant memory. Sometimes the darker experiences are the ones that give the story its emotional weight.

So yes — these episodes feel different. They’re more personal. More sensitive. But they’re still part of the same ongoing conversation about how real life becomes fiction, and how fiction sometimes reflects more truth than we expect.

Listen to Episode 7 this Thursday and Episode 8, to finish the season is out next week.

Enjoy,

Helen x