Is Fiction Just Shades of an Author's Truth?

By Annette Cole Mastron, Communications Director for Southern Writers Magazine

As Lord Byron said, "Truth is always strange; stranger than fiction." So, is fiction just shades of an author's truth?  I came up with this question as a result of an article that floated through my Facebook newsfeed last week. 

It caught my eye because of the title from New York Magazine, "The Real-Life Gone Girl Is 80, and still terrifying." The New York Best Selling novel "Gone Girl" expanded to a film was an unusual psychological thriller. It was masterful in how it took the reader through the story from the perspectives of the two protagonists. It is a story that stays with you because what you think you know isn't at all as it appears, much like real life. 

A psychological thriller has all the bells and whistles of a thriller. It layers the characters emotional unstable psychological makeup, ultimately driving the plot. 

As an author of fiction, you can take a true story and make it your own. Use the basis of the facts and weave into your unique book.  Your characters will develop an obvious and not so obvious tormented relationships complete with moral ambiguities for your protagonists. Don't forget to develop pathological tendencies in your protagonists. 

In a recent interview with The Hollywood Reporter, Gillian Flynn author of Gone Girl, states, "My interest is in turning over a rock and seeing what's underneath. It's a personality trait more than anything; it's what made me want to become a crime reporter, even though I was not suited for it personality-wise. [I wanted to explore] those bursts of violence, where they come from and how they unite people together. I wanted to figure out what drives people to these sorts of extremes." Flynn admitted in the same interview to including truth in her book, "I certainly put some of that in the story line. I was a Missouri kid in New York working at my dream magazine and got laid off and had to figure out what to do with my life next. I did have more time to write; [Gone Girl] was the first of the three books that I wrote while I didn't have a day job. I think it let me overwrite -- I probably wrote two books and had to chop it back to one."

So yes, when you come across a true story consider taking bits of the truth and turning it into an unforgettable psychological thriller book. Incorporate elements of mystery, drama, action and psychological horror. 

Who knows? You may have a best seller on your hands. 

Simple is the Key to Telling a Story

By William Dietrich

Tell a story.

Sounds simple, doesn’t it? We tell jokes, pluck incidents to illuminate how our day went, or confide memories to friends.

Yet many aspiring writers are excellent stylists struggling to determine what their book is about, and thus tell a gripping story. Life meanders. Stories have beginnings and ends.

Another difference between reality and story is that a story has to make sense. Even a fantasy novel needs internal logic to prevent the reader from feeling cheated. Game of Thrones has consistent rules, not wild magic.

I’ve spent a career as a journalist, nonfiction writer, and novelist, and the necessity of storytelling runs through all these.

My Ethan Gage series has a fictional American on quests during the Napoleonic wars. It’s Ethan outsmarting a dangerous world.

When I struggled recently with an essay on the North Cascades Mountains, it didn’t work until I told myself, ‘Tell a story, dummy.’ A personal one about a climb and avalanche introduced the broader topic.

So here are storytelling tips.

What is the problem, and what is the solution? A newspaper story, for example, can be primarily a “problem” bad news story, or a “solution” good news story, but both poles are almost always implied. Problem: war. Solution: victory, or negotiation, or surrender, etc.

I recently read Cheryl Strayed’s nonfiction book Wild. Problem: I’m messed up. Solution: Find myself by hiking the Pacific Crest Trail.

Or Michael Connelly’s mystery, The Black Box. Problem: A 20-year-old cold case. Solution: Look at things in a new way to realize the protectors could have been the perpetrators.

Next, what is my protagonist’s desire? It might be love, power, fortune, fame, or saving the world, but the writer must make their hero want something they initially can’t have. In The Barbed Crown, Ethan at various times wants love, family, treasure, or triumph, but Napoleon stands in his way.

What are the obstacles to your hero’s desire? There’s nothing more boring than a happy vacation story. What we like are vacation, wedding, or workplace stories of disaster. Every comic strip revolves around obstacles. Do you have enough?

A story needs suspense, and suspense comes from posing questions in the early pages not answered until the last. Readers are curious. Keep them turning pages to learn how the mystery is solved, the character transformed, or good triumphs over evil. Will Cheryl finish the trail? Will she resolve her life?

Insert tension. Many dreams are about anxiety. So are good stories. Star-crossed lovers, ticking time bombs, impossible deadlines, messages gone awry, missed flights, ruined survival food, and implacable weather works again and again because we like to be anxious. The greater the tension, the greater the reader’s relief and satisfaction at the end.

Finally, surprise us. Complex characters are less predictable. Gone Girl changed my expectations again and again – and I loved being fooled. 

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William Dietrich is the author of a dozen novels, including the bestselling Ethan Gage series of Napoleonic adventures that have sold into 30 languages. He has written several nonfiction books about the Pacific Northwest and was a career journalist, sharing a Pulitzer at the Seattle Times for coverage of the Exxon Valdez oil spill. He has taught writing at the university level. Research for my novels has taken me to the Arctic, Antarctic, Egypt, Israel, Jordan, Australia, Sicily, Greece, Paris, Britain, Hungary, Tibet...hey, someone's got to do it. I've traveled on a sailboat in the South Pacific, landed on an aircraft carrier, flown in a B-52, visited the South Pole, and been terrified flying with the Blue Angels. He was a Nieman Fellow at Harvard, won National Science Foundation fellowships to Antarctica, and speak frequently on environmental issues. I've covered Congress, the eruption of Mount St. Helens, the environment, science, social issues - even the military. He is married, with two grown children and lives in a house looking out at the San Juan Islands. Connecting with readers is one of life's biggest thrills. Website: www.williamdietrich.com 

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/authorwilliamdietrich