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While traveling this weekend, I heard two amazing stories, stories that need to be told. “How do I do start?” one of the ladies asked. When I suggested she consider turning her story into a novel, her eyes lit up with possibility.
It seems everywhere I go, people approach me about their desire to write their story. Whether it’s their own memoir or that of someone in their family, they feel the need to share the mystery, intrigue, heartache, health, and drama of family. That can be a good thing.
But real life doesn’t have to be real.
Just for the record, a few years ago, I would have suggested writing anything but a memoir. Memoirs weren’t selling at the time, those-in-the-know said. But as we’ve seen, trends come and trends go, and—at least for now—there’s an upswing in memoirs. That trend, however, could change tomorrow.
But what doesn’t change is the need for compelling fiction. Whether you have a story you just have to tell, or one you haven’t yet developed, here are 5 steps to turning real life into real fiction:
1. Create a file of possible story lines. Think of the overarching stories and relationships within your family. Don’t worry about details, simply gather ideas from history. Was your great-great grandmother Native American? Did your mother have a favorite child? Did your cousin spend time in prison? Do you know someone who was raped? Do you have a chronic illness that seriously affects your life? Write them all down for later consideration.
2. Create a file of scenes. Before I wrote my first children’s mystery, I made a legal pad list of every memory I had as a child…the good, the bad, and the ugly. I listed the funny things, the sad things, and the oh-if-only-I-had-it-to-do-over things. Many of those scenes found their way into my fictional Bitsy Burroughs Mysteries for kids 8-12 years old.
Since then, I’ve begun compiling specific, detailed scenes of my own and my family members’ childhood, teenage, and adult years.
3. Create a file of characters. Most novelists admit that their characters are either based on specific people or are a compilation of people they know. Begin by listing the funny, interesting, quirky people in your family or circle of friends. Then mix and match details to develop a real/fictional bio of the characters with the most potential.
4. Evaluate what you’ve collected. The key to writing good fiction is to make it feel real, without compromising the trust of your family and friends. Take the time to review your files. Which story lines do you feel most passionate about? Which have the most potential? Is there a way to mix and match them, creating a deeper, more compelling story?
If the real-life main character was a teacher with an abusive husband, could you make her a fictional bank executive who is stalked and emotionally abused by an acquaintance? Could the stalker have a criminal past and spent time in prison? What if the kind, grandmotherly next-door neighbor was Native American and had been raped? Could she help the fictional bank executive understand what’s happening to her? Could the protagonist also be the caregiver for her own mother who has your chronic illness?
Or perhaps you can take a headline—not the story itself—and create a fictional world around that headline. After all, depending on who you read, experts say all stories fall into a handful of basic plots. That’s where you give freedom to the “What ifs” of life.
Suppose you read that a child has been missing for over a year and the parent won’t divulge where that child is now. You can take that headline and create your own multi-layered, fictional story with none of the true details. Your story could include some of those characters and scenes you’ve already developed.
5. Protect yourself, your family, and friends. Depending on the tone of your story, you may need to go to great lengths to protect yourself and those you love. If the negatives of the story are all yours, then you can decide how much you want to reveal and how much you want to alter.
But if family and friends are involved, be sure the facts are totally changed and untraceable. Another option would be to get written permission to include their part of the story.
Remember that fiction should be exactly that—fiction. As the sayings go, life is a stage and there’s nothing new under the sun, so a lot of our fiction will have happened somewhere to someone along the way. But to knowingly write real life into your fiction requires a healthy dose of grace, insight, and sensitivity.
Start with the real, add the fiction, and mix and match details…and you could have the best real-life fiction on the market today!
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