Fact of Fiction

Fiction or non-fiction?  Maybe it’s both/and rather than either/or.  The line between the two is thin.

Lately I’ve been working on a large, creative non-fiction project.  I’ve still got a novel out for consideration (as it has been almost continuously for half a decade now), but there’s a true-to-life story that’s got its talons in me.

I’m not a post-modern writer, but I am a post-modern person.  I believe, in other words, that true objectivity is beyond human beings.  If that’s the case, facts are invented and not discovered.  Histories are interpretations—not what actually happened.  Fact sounds like it’s become fiction.

My post-modernism breaks down when it comes to writing.  Fiction is narrative.  I’ve tried to read post-modern novels and I always end up frustrated and confused.  I want a story to follow.  Preferably a moody one.

Now, the non-fiction post-modernist would say that both fiction and non may indeed be called “true.”  Truth is a matter of interpretation since anything can be looked at from differing angles.  Even an artist’s canvas has a back.

In my creative non-fiction project, I’m staying as close to the facts that I’ve made as I can.  The events I describe took place, but are they true?  That’s for the reader to decide.

Of course, I’m presuming there will be readers.  I haven’t found, or even considered a publisher yet.  Since my fiction has been a hard sell over the years I suspect the same for my non-fiction.  As a writer I recently read wrote, reading is hard work and people  don’t like to do it.

I suppose it’s best to go into this with one’s eyes enlightened.  Those of us who write (indeed, those of us who read) are not a large group, compared to the wider population.  We share our words and ideas with each other.

There are still readers out there.  That’s a fact I’m making, and it’s no fiction.