Lots of authors claim to be professional liars. Fiction isn’t real, so a writer must be good at lying. This always worried me as I am totally useless at telling lies. Okay, decades ago my English teacher once let me off for handing in an uncompleted essay, saying that my dog had eaten half of it, but I’m not sure she actually believed me. Does that mean my writing is doomed to failure?
I may have become a little more accomplished at lying since having a child. “No, you can’t have that toy- it’s for over five-year-olds and you’re only four,” or, “No, there aren’t any biscuits left.” However, I still find it hard to tell a bare-faced lie. I can’t seem to find plausible alternatives to lies, and I’m certain I look shifty when I tell them.
I haven’t been published yet, but I like to think it isn’t that bad. If my lies are terribly unconvincing why isn’t my fiction? Maybe because I don’t see fiction as lying. Okay, it isn’t strictly speaking ‘real’, but that doesn’t make it a lie. JK Rowling was asked when a fan’s Hogwarts letter was coming. Her reply was “All these people saying they never got their Hogwarts letter: you got the letter. You went to Hogwarts. We were all there together.” That sums it up for me. Fiction is real in your mind. You live through it, you believe it. That makes it real.
Our mind filters all reality. Whatever we experience goes through our mind and its preconceptions. When walking in the rain do you see it as a slog in the mud, or refreshing exercise with sparkly raindrops shining on branches? Which is real? Of course, it can be both. How you define something can depend on your mood, whether you have other things on your mind, your upbringing, your physical limitations, and so much more.
Good writing should make you feel you are in the world of the novel; seeing what the main character does, feeling the same emotions. It also communicates bigger truths. Themes such as finding your place in life and doing the right thing, resonate outside the plot of a book. They are meaningful and therefore real to a reader. As Ursula Le Guin said of writers telling metaphorical truths: “When they are done writing down this pack of lies, they say, ‘There! That's the truth’!” I enjoy reading fantasy, but the characters experience the same emotions, the same difficulties in life as anyone, regardless of the setting. Fantasy is as real as contemporary fiction. Those deeper undercurrents in writing are what makes it true.
When I was a child I liked to read boarding school books (I still do, actually), but to me they were as fantastical as Narnia. I was as likely to meet the ice queen as go to Switzerland to school. But both genres spoke to me about what really mattered- fairness, helping other people, and growing up. Fiction should have truth at its heart.
Lies to me are nasty little things designed to deceive people or to cover up something you’re ashamed of. Writing doesn’t do that – at least, not by the end of the book – it throws light on people and the things they do. It uncovers people’s characters and their motives for action. What could be more true?
Kathryn Hewitt
Kathryn is writing a fantasy involving a coal mine protest and lots of magic. She is hard-of-hearing like her main character. Luckily she had no esoteric powers to misuse, unlike her characters, and had to rely on traditional protesting to help prevent an opencast coal mine planned nearby her own home in Northumberland. She's now working on book two of her trilogy as well as writing a standalone Young Adult fantasy.
I may have become a little more accomplished at lying since having a child. “No, you can’t have that toy- it’s for over five-year-olds and you’re only four,” or, “No, there aren’t any biscuits left.” However, I still find it hard to tell a bare-faced lie. I can’t seem to find plausible alternatives to lies, and I’m certain I look shifty when I tell them.
I haven’t been published yet, but I like to think it isn’t that bad. If my lies are terribly unconvincing why isn’t my fiction? Maybe because I don’t see fiction as lying. Okay, it isn’t strictly speaking ‘real’, but that doesn’t make it a lie. JK Rowling was asked when a fan’s Hogwarts letter was coming. Her reply was “All these people saying they never got their Hogwarts letter: you got the letter. You went to Hogwarts. We were all there together.” That sums it up for me. Fiction is real in your mind. You live through it, you believe it. That makes it real.
Our mind filters all reality. Whatever we experience goes through our mind and its preconceptions. When walking in the rain do you see it as a slog in the mud, or refreshing exercise with sparkly raindrops shining on branches? Which is real? Of course, it can be both. How you define something can depend on your mood, whether you have other things on your mind, your upbringing, your physical limitations, and so much more.
Good writing should make you feel you are in the world of the novel; seeing what the main character does, feeling the same emotions. It also communicates bigger truths. Themes such as finding your place in life and doing the right thing, resonate outside the plot of a book. They are meaningful and therefore real to a reader. As Ursula Le Guin said of writers telling metaphorical truths: “When they are done writing down this pack of lies, they say, ‘There! That's the truth’!” I enjoy reading fantasy, but the characters experience the same emotions, the same difficulties in life as anyone, regardless of the setting. Fantasy is as real as contemporary fiction. Those deeper undercurrents in writing are what makes it true.
When I was a child I liked to read boarding school books (I still do, actually), but to me they were as fantastical as Narnia. I was as likely to meet the ice queen as go to Switzerland to school. But both genres spoke to me about what really mattered- fairness, helping other people, and growing up. Fiction should have truth at its heart.
Lies to me are nasty little things designed to deceive people or to cover up something you’re ashamed of. Writing doesn’t do that – at least, not by the end of the book – it throws light on people and the things they do. It uncovers people’s characters and their motives for action. What could be more true?
Kathryn Hewitt
Kathryn is writing a fantasy involving a coal mine protest and lots of magic. She is hard-of-hearing like her main character. Luckily she had no esoteric powers to misuse, unlike her characters, and had to rely on traditional protesting to help prevent an opencast coal mine planned nearby her own home in Northumberland. She's now working on book two of her trilogy as well as writing a standalone Young Adult fantasy.
How to find Kathryn
Twitter - https://twitter.com/SmallStonesTall
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