Aug 24, 2023 10:07:00

What are your techniques for writing fact-based fiction?

When I am working on my creations, I often find inspiration in real-life experiences and incidents. However, it is difficult to make a good fiction if the actual events are reflected in the story as they are. Essayist William Dameron gives advice when devising fiction based on such actual events.

William Dameron On the Tricky Art of Turning Truth Into Fiction ‹ Literary Hub

https://lithub.com/william-dameron-on-the-tricky-art-of-turning-truth-into-fiction/

Mr. Dameron wrote a memoir as an essayist, but he seems to have proposed fiction as a new work from the publisher. The novel '

The Way Life Should Be ', which was written in this way, is set to reflect Dameron's own experience of coming out as transgender and living in a new marriage as two men who have separated from their wives. Masu.

When writing, Mr. Dameron said, 'Not only have I absorbed the essence of my family, but have I reflected on the page even the conversations and whispers that I overheard?' I wondered if I used my family for this?” In particular, when writing essays and memoirs, the viewpoints and thoughts are all 'I', but the feelings and thoughts of the characters in the novel are all thought by the author, even though they are each person's. 'Maybe this is one of the things my loved ones can't stand, because it digs into the minds of the characters and makes each thought the way I imagine it,' Dameron said. .

What helped Mr. Dameron was the word that American short story writer

Grace Paley once said, 'People write from what they know, but write what they don't know.'

With the idea of ``starting with what you know and adding what you don't know'', Mr. Dameron places his own experiences, actual events, and the behavior and behavior of close people in the initial setting, character placement, and rough plot. Did. On top of that, we gave the characters new challenges that were different from what Dameron and the people around him actually experienced. In the process of confronting that challenge, the characters in the novel became people who existed only on the page, and ``I was saved by this creative method,'' Dameron said.

Sometimes readers think that the fictional protagonist reflects the author's thoughts, or that there are characters somewhere that reflect the author himself. Mr. Dameron also seems to be asked, 'Who is your character?' I am nothing,” he replied.