1. When I was in college, one of my good friends was a vampire. This is FALSE, because vampires don’t exist. OK, this is almost true because one of my good friends swore blind he was a vampire. To this day, I don’t know if he was (cuz who am I to say they don’t exist), or if he honestly believed he was (which may mean he needed serious help), or if he was pulling an elaborate hoax on us (to which I say, DUDE!?)
2. When I lived in Toronto, I decided to get a tattoo. As I was sitting in the tattoo parlor leafing through the book of options, the Chinese restaurant next door caught fire and we had to evacuate. I took it as a sign from the Universe that I shouldn’t get inked. I still don’t have a tattoo. This is TRUE. I should point out that I have made a deal with the Universe that if I get a book deal, I am going to get that tattoo.
3. When we got married, my husband and I both wore dresses. This is FALSE. My husband wore a kilt, which is nowhere near a dress. He (and any other Scotsman) gets seriously ticked if you refer to it as a dress. Here's a picture...
4. My favorite thing to do is go camping. I love hiking to a place where no one has been and just chilling out by the campfire. This is FALSE. I am a room service kind of girl. I love nature, but I prefer to have a hot bath after enjoying it.
5. Shortly after I graduated, I was approached by a recruiter from the Department of Defense to work for them on an artificial intelligence computer project I started while in college. This is FALSE. But this happened to a very good friend of mine. I may write a book about this one day because it is such a good story.
6. I don’t believe in love at first sight. This is so completely FALSE. I honestly believe in love at first sight and have been lucky enough to experience it. Once. I married him. (see #3 above).
As I was completing this little exercise, it occurred to me that a lot of my fabrications had a nugget of truth to them. I realized that this is very similar to my writing style as well. Many of my stories have some basis in reality, whether it is characters or setting or plot elements. I am a very visual writer, meaning that whole scenes, conversations, actions playing out in my head like a movie before I write them, so it helps if I can picture it. Using reality as my jumping off point works for me. I am in awe of writers who build worlds from scratch.
How about you? How much of your fabrications have a basis in truth?
I think most of my stories have truth in them. In fact, all of them have so far. Even the weird, fantasy stuff has a nugget of truth. I think that is how we make our stories believable...if there is even a grain of truth that someone can believe in or connect with, readers can relate to it and believe what is going on. :)
ReplyDeleteP.s. I'm jealous - I tried to get my half-Scottish hubby to wear a kilt at our wedding and he wouldn't. Of course now, 9 years later, he says he would have but I didn't ask. I sooo beg to differ LOL I'll get him in one one of these days :D
Hi Jenna! I'm a new follower and wanted to say hello. How funny, my blog post today revealed the truths from my lies for the Creative Writer award! Like you, I realized every one of my lies were, in fact, partial truths. The same can be said for my fiction, too.
ReplyDeleteLooking forward to reading more from you!
Michelle, I think men look great in kilts (which is the only reason I let my husband buy one...they are SO expensive. At least you can wear them more than a wedding dress).
ReplyDeleteNicole, thanks for coming by. I'll have to check out your 'fiction' post.