Truth is too Strange for Fiction

I love talking to my mom because she's always sharing local stories that start out with something like, "Did you hear about Bob? He was crushed by his tractor." or "You should be keeping those plastic bread bag clips. A teacher in Eatonville is trying to collect 1 million."

Local Flare

Last night's story was a keeper. Mom started out with, "Did you hear about June? She ran over her own foot?"

I shook my head. June's a short woman in her late 60s who recently had a heart surgery and shouldn't be running over pieces of herself. She may be of tough farm stock, but people are only so tough.

Mom said, "June got out of the car to get the mail and left the car out of gear. It started to roll and June went after it." It turns out that in retrieving it, the car managed to run OVER June and she was stuck underneath with the car resting on her ankle.

I asked how June fit under the car — she's not exactly svelte.

Mom shrugged and went on, "It was dark, and the car was in the middle of the road. Luckily, someone stopped to check it out and noticed June's hand sticking out from under the car, trying to get his attention." Mom demonstrated.

Mom went on to explain that had to explain to the young man how to drive the car off her — I assume in a manner that would cause her the least amount of injury.

Remarkably, mom said, June had no broken bones, but her ego's a little damaged.

Collecting stories

I've started collecting these stories because they're both strange and entertaining . . . and I LOVE them. Unfortunately, I can't use them "as is". Truth is stranger than fiction, and that's why readers won't believe your "true story" if you use it straight up in your fiction.

One of my first scripts included a bunch of weird stuff from my home town. The consensus from several agents was "The story's great, but none of those things could really have happened. Could you make it more believable?"

June's story

Now I collect my strange, local stories and piece them out as needed. For example, I already have a use for a hand coming out from under the car, summoning help.

Too bad truth is TOO strange for fiction, because June's is a great little story!

Getting the Most From Your Writer’s Group

I love my writer’s group.  Each week we bring our pages and listen as the other writers read them aloud.

After the read, they tell me what they think. They don't try to save my feelings, just give it to me straight (or at least I hope they do).  But what they might not know is that its' watching and listening to them while they read my work that's sometimes even more helpful.    

Listening 

I listen to hear if the readers are: 

• stumbling over dialogue that needs to be smoother or more natural 

• finding it hard to navigate through awkward sentences 

• not laughing during humorous moments (not a good sign) 

• laughing during dramatic scenes (even worse)   

Watching 

I also watch readers to see: 

• when they enjoying the experience 

• when they look confused 

• when they seem to lose interest 

• and lastly, when they are already searching for a way to give me that bad news about my pages.  

Their comments over the years have helped me hone my skills, improve my characters and sharpen plots, but it’s been watching their expressions and initial reaction to my work that’s been truly priceless.  

I highly recommend it!

Developing Characters on the Web

My Webster’s dictionary is getting dusty. I used to love leafing through the pages to find a definition or correct spelling. Now the only times I grab it are to challenge my husband during wicked games of Scrabble. Like everyone else, I’ve turned to the web.

Researching Words

If it were just about the definitions, I might still be using Webster’s, but the beauty of the web is seeing the words used.

When you’re writing fiction this is invaluable. We work hard to give our characters — that can range from local butchers to marine biologists — the right vocabulary. However, it we don't understand the vocabulary is used, when they start speaking on the page they can sound stilted, or worse, mentally challenged.

The web now allows us to see people using our new vocabulary words. For example:

 • I came across the word “meme” with respect to a website. As a techno-dork I didn’t know what one was, but was sure the website designer in my story would be familiar with the term. And even as techno-challenged as I am, I was confident he’d never utter sentences like “I’ve got a bunch of memes in my pocket,” or “Hey, you got some memes for sale.” So I hit to the web.

 • Wikipedia was my first stop, but the definition was too general.

• Next I Googled “What is meme”.

 This time I found out from Chrisg.com that “for bloggers Memes have become synonymous with internet quizzes, surveys, and novelties that people link to and pass around on their blogs, forums and via email, things like the “which superhero are you most like” test…”

 • Finally (and this is cool part) I started reading the comments. Now I could see people using the term in casual conversation. Jackpot!

Could my Webster’s have done that? No. But if I'm going to beat my husband at Scrabble I'm still going to have to keep it close.