wanda7
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Location: Pacific Northwest
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 From Life to Fiction
Okay, this is not so much an idea, yet... but, I'm wrestling with the idea of turning life into art.
I have some stories that are banging about in my head (and as soon as life stops banging me about, I'll get down to writing again).
How close to life can you get and still call it fiction?
I can give you a for example:
The other day, I saw two police cars pull up and go into my neighbour's house. My neighbour runs an in-home daycare. She has a former husband who has threatened her and her daughter. Hmm. I watch and watch. A woman comes out of the house and talks to the police and waves her hands about and gets her purse from an SUV in the driveway. A mom? When Martha gets home, she calls the neighbour immediately. Why are the police there?
Well, the mother of one the daycare kids was there picking up her daughter when her husband called and said he was in her house, he was going to destroy everything she owned, and when she got home, he was going to beat her and kill her. Oh. THE WOMAN PLANNED TO GO TO HER HOME AND CONFRONT HIM. My neighbour, sensibly, called the police.
So, from that, I had this idea:
*It's really my fault. If I hadn't been so embarrassed by his actions, none of this would have happened. I feel so bad for him. I hope that I don't make things worse.* As the opening for a story in which a woman is dead, buried in a park (which seems to happen a lot in these parts), and is lamenting that she wasn't a good wife to her abusive husband.
This is just one of many stories that I have tumbling about, but I'm not sure about them. Where does it become fiction?
Wanda
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Reading: Anansi Boys, 28 Barbary Lane Omnibus
Writing: TDB
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If you are obsessing about something, you may as well take that and put it to use, to create something.
Joni Mitchell
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4/6/2006, 8:44 pm
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SFGirl
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Re: From Life to Fiction
Wanda, I think it becomes fiction as soon as you start telling the story without the real-life details (names, places, etc.). All you have from real life is a situation--what you're going to do is turn it into a story.
Sherry
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Reading: Seeker by Jack McDevitt
Writing: editing The Big Freeze
Drawing: Grapes still life
Listening: James Patrick Kelly's podcast of "Men Are Trouble"
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4/7/2006, 6:31 pm
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wanda7
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Registered: 02-2005
Location: Pacific Northwest
Posts: 312
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Re: From Life to Fiction
okay, I'll print your post and hand it to folks who tell me they recognize themselves in my stories..
wanda
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----------
Reading: Anansi Boys, 28 Barbary Lane Omnibus
Writing: TDB
----------
If you are obsessing about something, you may as well take that and put it to use, to create something.
Joni Mitchell
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4/7/2006, 10:20 pm
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