Fiction Mimics Real Life: Introduction
In Today's Journal
* My Quote of the Day
* Fiction Mimics Real Life
* Of Interest
* The Numbers
My Quote of the Day
"Lisa Hall-Wilson, in the second article linked in Of Interest, wrote 'The power of Deep Point of View is creating a sense for readers that they’re IN the story AS IT’S HAPPENING with your characters.' (caps original)
"You create that 'deep POV' and that effect by describing whatever the POV character sees, hears, smells, tastes, and feels, physically and emotionally." Harvey
Fiction Mimics Real Life
Introduction
Well, to be accurate, fiction mimics real life within your fictional world. But that isn't a cop-out. If anything, it's a cop-in. Read on.
This topic naturally lends itself to an introduction and two distinct subtopics, each of which is around 500 words. So today you get the introduction. I'll publish each of the subtopics on successive days.
The overall topic and this introduction also came to me from two sources:
The first source
was a writer who wrote in a comment, "... the old saying, 'Life can be unbelievable, but fiction has to make sense'."
That reminded me of something I heard a big-name writer say after the horrible events of September 11, 2001: "I couldn't have written that. Nobody would believe it."
Sure they would. His readers would believe it.
Why? Because he would have written it in his fictional world.
And if he's worth his salt as a writer, he would have provided his readers with the necessary stimulus and descriptions so they would believe it.
Put another way, they would readily suspend their sense of disbelief. Sound familiar?
Moreover, he could have written the story from his own vantage point as a person witnessing that horrible event from outside.
Or he could have shifted the story into almost any office in any floor of the building. The initial impact would have felt different to different people on different floors in the different buildings.
Probably thousands of different stories unfolded inside those buildings on that day. And millions more stories unfolded outside. To be strictly mercenary about it as a writer, that event is rife for a series of stories or even novels.
You could even write from the vantage point of the pilots, etc.
Before you gasp "Too soon!" and think I'm a jerk,
remember that similar stories could take place in any high-rise building anywhere on earth. They all have floors, offices, small and large businesses, living compartments, etc. Think like a writer.
The second source
was a high-action drama I watched a couple of nights ago (Star Trek: Discovery). As I watched, I wondered briefly what it would be like to write almost overwhelming nonstop action like that.
And in that brief moment, my thoughts on the topic gelled: I DO write nonstop action stories and nonstop action scenes in my novels.
So those are the sources of this topic and its two subtopics.
Tomorrow, I'll present the first subtopic as Fiction Mimics Real Life: Part 1: Description, or What Pulls Readers into the Story. I think you don't want to miss it.
Of Interest
The Essential Deep POV Checklist: 11 Tips For Better Writing Just putting this out there. I disagree with parts of it, but if you take what you need and leave the rest, this might be helpful. Feel free to write me with any questions.
The Numbers
The Journal…………………………… 1080
Writing of Blackwell Ops 38: Paul Stone
Day 1…… 4071 words. To date…… 4071
Day 2…… 2711 words. To date…… 6782
Day 3…… 3434 words. To date…… 10216
Day 4…… 4185 words. To date…… 14401
Day 5…… 4149 words. To date…… 18550
Fiction for February………………….. 60372
Fiction for 2025………………………. 181727
Nonfiction for February…………….... 20800
Nonfiction for 2025…………………… 52780
2025 consumable words…………….. 227997
Average Fiction WPD (February)…….. 2415
Average Fiction WPD (Annual)……..… 3245
2025 Novels to Date…………………….. 4
2025 Novellas to Date…………………… 0
2025 Short Stories to Date……………… 8
Novels (since Oct 19, 2014)…………..... 108
Novellas (since Nov 1, 2015)…………… 10
Short stories (since Apr 15, 2014)……… 278
Short story collections……………………. 29
Disclaimer: Whatever you believe, unreasoning fear and the myths that outlining, revising, and rewriting will make your work better are lies. They will always slow your progress as a writer or stop you cold. I will never teach the myths on this blog.
Writing fiction should never be something that stresses you out. It should be fun. On this blog I teach Writing Into the Dark and adherence to Heinlein’s Rules. Because of WITD and because I endeavor to follow those Rules I am a prolific professional fiction writer. You can be too.
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Hope you submit to Vigilante, UH!
Whoa. Weird that you chose 9/11 as the example. I recently wrote about a firefighter who was on the ground there and lost his dad (who was also a firefighter). It was hard (emotionally speaking) to write, but I think the layers using the senses will really draw the reader into his experience - the physical as well as the emotional. I cried my way through it, but it was SO worth writing.