When they say fiction is based upon reality, no kidding!  Every experience I am a part of, every conversation I have, every real story I hear about, is food for thought, turned ‘life for thought.’  It’s what makes life so interesting.  You can take that perception and turn it into a story, embellish it and make it interesting movie stuff.  It becomes visual and real and others can relate.  You can even take a real-life bad situation and turn it into something for readers to relate to and learn from – and that is my favorite part about writing because it’s all ‘what ifs.’  It’s all really based upon factual situations.  We writers just embellish them.