Friday, August 12, 2016

Separating Fact and Fiction



Keeping real life out of my fiction is an ongoing challenge. A story without some authentic detail will feel thin and hollow, but a story with too much could offend readers who think they recognize themselves. I have a number of ways of coping with this problem.

In the Anita Ray series, I set much of the action in the resort Kovalam because it resembles a small town, with dozens of shops and lanes and visitors. The sheer size seems to neutralize curiosity. When I take the reader outside the tourist area, I make up villages and towns. In When Krishna Calls, I take the reader into a remote valley.

I recently created a small town for a new collection of short stories I've been writing. I did this so no one would be able to assume they knew where the town was located. To make the town distinctive, I created a map with streets and store locations, and described a topography that I hope is sufficiently different from any real place.

My characters have to live in apartments and houses, or at least somewhere, and if I come across a real place that I think will work well for a particular character I usually ask the owner if I can use it. Before Chief Joe Silva moved in with Gwen McDuffy, he lived in the downstairs apartment based on that of a friend of mine. His landlady lived upstairs. For the condo he and Gwen occupied, I used my grandmother's apartment, located in another state.

I exercise the same caution when creating characters. When I teach I often use this exercise: describe three people, one you know well, one you've seen but don't know, and one you make up entirely. The descriptions will be different, and will resonate on different levels with the reader, depending on the writer's intimacy with the individual described. Over the years I've found that the second character is usually the strongest, best imagined, because it includes both details to anchor the character and room for the writer's imagination.

Along with the physical description of a character comes the name. It is far too easy to pick one that sounds good, and later learn that it belongs to a real person (I made that mistake once). My main concern is to match the name to the personality, which means sometimes I use old biblical names (Ezekial) or something invented to signal that this character has a history (Pattern, as a first name). I have a few books I rely on, including Clues to our Family Names, by Lou Stein, and From Aaron to Zoe, by Daniel Avram Richman, which includes meanings as well as origins. I also use The Book of Indian Names, edited by Raja Ram Mehrotra. After I've made a choice, I check it with several local telephone books.

One of the best ways to get inside a character and create something rich and compelling is by describing that person traveling. How do they travel? By foot, bike, motorcycle, car, van, bus, train? What is the first choice? And what is the destination? In the new Mellingham mystery, Come About for Murder, everyone seems to travel by boat if they can.

Like many other writers, I also note down unusual lines of dialogue or figures of speech. I once made a doctor wait while I finished writing down a conversation I'd overheard earlier in the day, when I didn't have paper and pen with me. If I can capture a particular manner of speech, I have the personality. But here again, I review it to make sure it's not something that will identify a particular person. Many people lisp, but fewer lisp, limp, and swear softly under their breath while stacking oranges in the grocery store.

Even when I make every effort to keep anyone I know out of my fiction, I still encounter the curious reader. I live near an art school, which I've visited several times for talks and exhibits. I even know a few of the teachers. I thought it would make an interesting setting, and set my second Mellingham mystery there. Double Take concerns the death of an older art student. To my surprise, one of the teachers, whom I knew slightly, mentioned at a party that she and her colleagues were trying to figure out who was who in the novel. I quickly reassured her that no one from the school was actually in the book.


When readers pick up one of my stories or novels, I want them to enjoy the story and not wonder who is real and who is fictional.

16 comments:

  1. Great information and advice!
    Thanks for sharing
    Good luck and God's Blessings
    PamT

    ReplyDelete
  2. Thanks, Pam. I hope it's useful information.

    ReplyDelete
  3. I don't think it is possible to create entirely original names without making the names truly bizarre! I know there is a mystery writer whose primary character is named Kathleen Valentine but we don't look anything alike. ;) Writing is a crazy occupation.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Yikes! I can't imagine opening up a book and seeing my name on the page. Of course, considering my name . . . And yet, there are plenty of people with the same name, as rare as it seems. Thanks for commenting.

    ReplyDelete
  5. I tried to be very careful about individual characters in The Immaculate - and found to my surprise that people were more disappointed NOT to be in the book. "I would have been PERFECT in the scene at the Irish-American Club!". Startling.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. People always surprise us. Maybe you can put her in the next one. Thanks for sharing that.

      Delete
  6. I also try to avoid putting real people into my fiction. Of course, we're always going to pick up characteristics from people we know that fit into our stories. A mix of fact and fiction is acceptable.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Yes, it's impossible to avoid remembering vivid images we encounter. Thanks for adding that.

      Delete
  7. Fascinating. Particularly as it is almost all the opposite of my writing. Most of my characters are deliberately described as closely to real characters as I can make them. Even the bad guys. As an aside, almost no one has ever recognized themselves. Now I ask you, is that because my character descriptions are deficient, or it is because the individuals in question are deficient in their self-awareness?

    ReplyDelete
  8. Thanks for the laugh, Carl. I'm guessing that the people you put into your stories are far too vain to see themselves as you depict them. I remember a writer telling me years ago to go ahead and describe a real person if I wanted to, but to change one important detail, important to the person, that is, and they would never recognize themselves. So, describe a thin person as fat, a man with a full head of hair as bald, and so on. Maybe it works. Thanks for telling us how you do it.

    ReplyDelete
  9. I started my book largely with the intention of murdering a real person I greatly disliked. As the plot developed, he took on (a) characteristics he needed for the plot and (b) characteristics he simply insisted on having. I think he's now unrecognizable. BTW, my legal name is Mary Wilson. Someone once asked me if I had ever sung with the Supremes.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Heidi, you've described exactly what happens to me when I think about a real person as a character in a story--immediately he begins to change into a different person, someone much more real for the story. Thanks for sharing that great example.

      The Supremes? I could never get even as close as a name to singing like those women. How I wish . . .

      Thanks for adding your comments.

      Delete
  10. I use fictional communities (such as Reckless River, Washington for the Subbing isn't for Sissies series) because I feel it gives me more leeway in making snarky comments about town politics and issues. My characters tend to have a lot of opinions, not all positive.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Inventing your community was obviously a wise move, Carolyn, if your characters like to make snarky comments. I love Washington State, so I'll be sure to look for your books. And I love the name, Reckless River--it sounds like the West/Northwest.

      Delete
  11. Identifying fictional characters as real characters seems to be an on-going game with readers. It's something we all do if we know the author. Your ways around this are so useful--and Carl's experience is truly funny. Others will find that they "know" who a fictional character really is, but the person so identified would never recognize him/herself in the same character!

    ReplyDelete
  12. You're right about identifying characters as a game that we all play, Pam. I know I've done it also. Thanks for adding that.

    ReplyDelete