WEDNESDAY WRITING WORKOUT: Never Let the Truth Get in the Way of a Good Story

Today's Wednesday Writing Workout  - intended to get you THINKING about Fiction vs. Fact - comes to you courtesy of my Chicago writer LisaMaggiore.  I knew pronto her “Ava” picture book manuscript was a Winner when I first read it. Sky Pony Press obviously agreed because they published AVA THE MONSTER SLAYER: A WARRIOR WHO WEARS GLASSES, illustrated by Ross Felten, in 2015.  

I’m happy to report: Lisa’s currently working on an AVA sequel as well as a YA novel. She lives with her husband and four children in the city.  For the past 20 years, she was a dedicated social worker – a profession she proudly admits helped her write about tragedy and love. 

Like her Heroine Ava, Lisa excels at both conquering Scary Moments – and – telling stories.  If you don’t believe me, click HERE to listen to and watch her perform her Live Lit LOUDER THAN A MOM performance last February in which she shares her TRUE story of giving both to her daughter at a Chicago gas station! 

Fortunately, when it comes to fiction, Lisa makes sure she never lets the Truth get in the way of a good story. 😊

Thank you, Lisa, for jump-starting our TeachingAuthors readers' brains, showing and sharing how they can do the same.  

And, Readers: don’t forget to click HERE to enter our TeachingAuthors Book Giveaway of Matt Bird’s THE SECRETS OF STORY (Writer’s Digest, 2016)!

Enjoy and learn!

Esther Hershenhorn

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TRUTH VS. AUTHENTICITY

“Never let the truth get in the way of a good story.”

Some believe the words belong to Mark Twain; others believe the words appear in The Dictionary of Modern Proverbs.  Either way, its meaning can be confusing when writing

a story.  Should the truth be omitted or entwined in a story?  And how does being authentic come into play?

As a writer who has taken on a YA historical fiction project, writing in the realm of truth

and authenticity requires a fine balance.  My protagonist, Tin, is male an Amerasian, both of which I am not.  He has lived in an orphanage, survived war, and been a refugee in America - all of which I have never experienced.  Some literary critics have argued that if you’re not writing from your own direct experience, what’s being written cannot be true.  I can begin to question myself as a writer – how can I tell a story that I have never experienced in a truthful and authentic way?

I fell in love with my idea for my YA historical and as writers know, you must love your story, or why would anyone else?  To give myself permission to write this story, I decided to strip away ideas that I had about truth and authenticity and look up the definitions.

This is what I found in Merriam-Webster’s dictionary.

Truth: the body of real things, events and facts; a judgment, proposition, or idea that is true or accepted as true.

Authentic: true to one’s own personality, spirit, or character.

These definitions really helped to guide my writing and here’s how.  When I teased away the truth, what I found is that my story’s mission is about drawing out a minority voice and combating oppression, two ideas in storytelling that I’m

deeply passionate about.  My protagonist, Tin, is a fictional character, based on

years of research and interviews with Vietnamese refugees.  But I’m mindful of

giving him an authentic voice because I have worked on being an empathic

interviewer and observer.  I did those things by taking careful notes while conducting interviews, attending Vietnamese events, and easting at Vietnamese

restaurants.  It also helped that my oldest daughter is half Vietnamese; her father and his family escaped Saigon as it was falling to the Communists in 1975.

When I discovered Tin’s authentic voice, I added “truth” but flavored it with

fiction.  Since this is a historical novel, I had real events, facts, and ideas that were accepted as true but how much of that truth I placed in the story was up to me to decide.  Truth is measurable, since it is based in a recorded fact, but truth

is also how someone felt emotionally.  That is not something that can be

measured since it’s linked to an emotion through a personal experience.  

And this is where I think writers can get the two mixed up.  Authentic voice is not

necessarily hinged on truth, rather on what your character would/do if you

were not looking. It involves being vulnerable and sharing emotions, exposing

fears, uncovering anxieties.  The authentic voice pulls the reader into a place of

understanding, if done right, on why your protagonist took a certain action, even

if the reader may not agree with the protagonist’s decision.  The truth does not

mean giving the reader what he wants to hear, but as Ernest Hemingway described as the authenticity found in novels, “All good books are alike in that they are truer than if they had really happened and after you are finished reading one you will feel that all that happened to you and afterwards, it all belongs to you.”

As a writer working with truth and authenticity, you must enter the reader’s brain and heart.  Truth can do the brain work and engage the reader in the

journey in a curious and excited, even scary way.  Authenticity works the heart,

by helping the reader belive that the journey will be worthwhile and fulfilling.

And at the end of the day, I’m hoping that the reader is engaged in my mission: telling a truthful and authentic story that is bigger than any of us.

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