The best stories take reality, cut the BS, give a reader every viewpoint required for clarity and leave them to decide for themselves what to do with what they learn.
Category: Thoughts on writing
Reality is too complex
Build on the bare bones of your structure. Make your story whole. Tell it in all its complex twists and turns.
Edit anything which clouds your story. Cut the irrelevant, the redundant, any repetition. Polish your baby until the light at its heart shines clear. Clarity above all.
Telling lies for a living
There is nothing wrong with telling lies for a living. Writers of fiction are not the only ones who do it. So long as there is no intent to commit fraud or harm, why should we not? After all, it is not only writers who tell lies for a living. Poets, artists, singers and songwriters, actors, commedians…
Why do we love these liars, buy their books, music, art and movies? Because we find value in suspending our disbelief, opening our hearts and minds to their lies and finding that most valuable kernel of truth.
We need stories
Why? Because sometimes we want to be swept away from reality and entertained, amused, or reassured that good can win over evil, love makes the world go around and we can get what we think we deserve. We may be looking for a way to deal with a situation, seeking a model to emulate, an example to follow, inspiration to greatness, or courage to continue toward our goals.
We learn much from being entertained in this way, about how people think and feel, how they reason and why they do what they do. Both as an example to follow and to avoid.
Sometimes we need to learn the lessons we don’t learn from reality. We need the objectivity of not being so personally involved.
There are hundreds more reasons why we need stories. What are your favourites?
A different kind of true
True stories can sound unbelievable. Though often based on truth, they must often be ‘massaged’ by a writer for various reasons, including:
- protection the innocent or the family or friends of the innocent… the identity of the person or persons involved who may not appreciate the fame or notoriety;
- providing the story with a background which ‘makes sense’;
- to bestow a richly deserved ‘happy-ever-after’; or
- deliver your ‘character’ the karma they deserve because the slippery eel avoids everything they deserve in real life…;
- making sense of an event which the writer cannot understand in reality;
- because the reality sounds far-fetched; and/or
- to avoid legal proceedings for defamation, slander etc.
Which have you done in the course of your writing or come across in your reading?
Zoetic Words 