Fact and Fiction Writers

I read a while back that novelists and other writers of fiction often will tell people stories that are not totally true. They often improve the story. It's just the nature of the writer. I know I have this tendency at times. The writers that I have known seem to have this penchant.

The other day I met with a writer who was traveling through Korea after spending some time reporting on President Obama's trip here in Seoul. He is a journalist. He and I went to the same journalism school many years ago. He has relatives who live here in Korea and took advantage and paid them a visit.

He also is a novelist. We talked about this propensity to shaping and creating events and people that writers have. He told me that it was the one thing he could not do as a journalist and the opportunities were there but it was a big no-no. Some journalists who were frustrated fiction writers did give in to this temptation and forever lived to regret it when they were caught by their readers and/or editor. It is much harder to fool the reader than one's editor who often is a young man or woman who doesn't read all that much and does not have the sophistication of a seasoned reader as the readers often are. Sometimes, it was the person being written about who did not like words being put in his or her mouth even if they were better said.

I asked him if he always had this temperament because even W. Somerset Maugham in his book, "Summing Up", warns people that authors are not the most reliable reporters of the people around them.

"Good heavens yes. I used to get accused of telling white lies all of the time. I don't think I ever understood quite why I did this until I met another writer. He was telling me about something that happened to him forgetting that I was there too. I almost didn't recognize the incident. I have since learned all fiction writers do it. Its in our blood, so to speak. As a journalist, I can't do that. I don't have that freedom. If the subject of your story uses bad grammar, then you don't give him a direct quote. If he says something great, then you do. You never burn your bridges with someone you may want to interview again. "

I was the same way and hated the journalism part of my writing career. Sometimes, I would be sitting in front of those large typewriters and want to change things a bit, smooth it out and so forth and I would have to sit on my hands until the feeling past. Now, when I am writing, I give it full rein.

I asked him if he got tempted to change the words of President Obama. He shook his head. "No, the man is very literate and well-read. He is actually a lot easier to follow than the previous president because President Bush said a lot of things you really could not put down or people would think you were making things up. I am not saying this because I disliked the man because I didn't. I just think he has a form of dyslexia and gets mixed up in his words at times. The press is not a forgiving lot."

The one thing that writers do, is describe the shadows of human kind. It is in the stories that we write. Poets write about it as well. We look at life differently as the so-called normal people do. The everyday events of living is just fodder for us to use in our work. In accepting the shadows in others, it is best that we accept it in ourselves.

My friend said: "The best thing I ever learned as a journalist and novelist is that when people start to harp on me for this or that I remember that there is nothing wrong with me. It was one morning when I got up to go to work and I had gotten a call from my mother the night before who told me to watch those tricks of the imagination that I was so prone to. When I opened my eyes I remembered her words along with everyone else. Don't do this. Do this. Stop dreaming. Then I realized that maybe they like their world that way, but I don't. There was nothing wrong with me. I am just fine the way I am. I never looked back."

I think this is good advice.