Liar, Liar! Pants on Fire!

Another Definition of Fiction

I belong to Rotary and if you’re not familiar with them, you should look into it, but that’s not the point of this blog.  But it sorta is.  In Rotary we have what is known as the Four Way Test of the things we think, say and do. The first of which asks the question: Is it the Truth?  Therein lies the dilemma for me.

I write fiction and by its very definition it is not true, so I violate that rule every time I sit down at my computer to work on a book or a screenplay.   I was written up on critiques at a writer’s conference, actually I’ve been written up several times, but I want to talk about one in specific.  The person said I called her a liar and she was highly offended.  She wanted her money back, wanted me fired, never invited back, wanted them to take away my birthday and erase me from the face of the earth or words to that effect.

What I said that got her all fired up was that if you looked in the dictionary (and I never have…I just assume and we all know what that is) under the word “Fiction” one of the definitions would be “untrue.”  I went on to explain that as children we had all probably experienced that time when our mother or father sat us down and asked if what we told them about that broken whatever was true.  They knew it wasn’t and so did we, but we insisted that it was.  Mom or Dad then went on to explain that we had told something that was not true and that means we told a lie, which in our understanding made us Liars!

That was my point.  We write fiction.  We create things that are not true.  We have characters tell things that are not true.  We are liars.  I think the lady failed to see the connection or the humor in what I was trying, unsuccessfully in her case, to explain.

I have a screenplay about German POW’s who were kept in the United States during WWII.  In my story they escape during a hurricane, wreak havoc on an oil refinery, mostly get killed or re-captured by the FBI and there is a double agent in the group.  A producer was interested in the script and asked me, “Is the story true?”  Going back to my Rotary meetings I had to say:

“Well, World War Two is true and there were German Prisoners of War here in the United States.  Some did escape and were recaptured by the military and the FBI.  Hurricanes are real.  Just ask the people in Florida and Louisiana.  The FBI uses double agents. There are oil refineries in the United States.  And uh…uh…well, uh…you see..I…I confess.  I’m a liar. I made the rest of it up.  It’s not true.  I won’t do it any more…and…”  That’s when he stopped me and said, “I like it.  Let’s talk.”

We talked and we’re still talking about the project but that’s the way it goes in this business. Did I lie to him? Sorta.  Did he like it?  Sorta.  Are all fiction writers liars?  You figure that one out.  In the meantime, I’m going to try to get Rotary to change the test to: Is it the Truth? If it’s not it should be.