I’m working on a short piece about a little old man that haunts a local convenience store. All I know about him I’ve gleaned while running in and out of the store for milk.
The structure of the story boils down to this:
Opening bookend:
There’s this guy. He does this stuff.
Middle meditation:
I’ve always wondered what this man’s story is . . . [Insert meditation on the guy, all of which is fancy and conjecture based on minimal information, here.]
Closing bookend:
Back to the guy as he is in known in reality.
Simple as the piece may be, I have absolutely no idea how to label it.
The content of the opening bookend is true.
The content of the closing bookend is true.
The content of the middle meditation is true in that the thoughts have been genuinely contemplated, but the content of the thoughts—the imagined details of the man’s life and identity—are fictitious. The bulk of the middle section of the piece is not true, even if the curiosity and wondering behind them are.
Help?
If you had to categorize this story, would you label it creative nonfiction or fiction? Why? Is there a point at which contemplation turns one into the other?
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Can the story be written without having a category name in mind? Is the label itself important enough to influence how the story will be written? Does this story need to qualify for a specific venue in some way?
Fiction, otherwise it’s an essay. =)
I think you answered your own question in the heading for your middle section. It is a meditation. If you’re stuck with fact/fiction because of submission rules somewhere that require you to cleave to one category or another, I’d go fiction. And yell at whoever set up the categories. They’re a numpty.
If you do end up having to argue with a numpty, I recommend scaring them with a spot of Wordsworth. Is ‘I wandered lonely as a cloud’ fact or fiction? He probably saw daffodils (and some lonely clouds), he thought about them, he wrote a deeply irritating poem. Discuss :-)
Hi, all. Thanks for the comments!
@Moeskido: Good questions. The categorization doesn’t change the writing itself, no; the process and content remain the same. The genre label of the end result, though, ties into two matters: 1. The theoretical question of narrative ethics (please forgive me for using that phrase), of what truth is really true, etc. and 2. The practical question of how the piece might be marketed.
@foobella and @Kate: Where’s the dividing line, though? People express wonderings, opinions, guesses, analyses, meditations in nonfiction articles and essays and stories all the time. So at what point does the one turn into the other? Certainly the tipping point occurs before you hit the 51%-49% point: lies seem to possess more weight than truths. But where’s the changeover?
If each section is, say 5 sentences long, does 2/3 true make the piece true? Or does that 1/3 of curious guesswork — which itself is an honest reaction to a situation or mystery — turn it into fiction? Does the way that the story’s structure isolates one from the other affect the result?
And Kate, it really is a shit poem. Dorothy Wordsworth’s diary entry about that same event, however, is energetic and gorgeous.
Nonfiction IS allowed some creative room as far as speculating is concerned. Most worthwhile memoirs contain speculation about what’s going on in other character’s mind and their intentions.
Sometimes it’s stated as boldly as “I can imagine him thinking…” or “I dream that I see it through his eyes, all of the….” Othertimes it’s divided by style alone, tenses, subjunctive mood, etc.
As long as the reader can reasonably figure out that you’re bending reality for the purposes of narration, it’s fair game in my book. Others will be sticklers for signs showing the audience in no uncertain terms that you’re taking license, but no one will keep you from delving.
The meditative bit will be clearly indicated, of course. Otherwise, I’d just head straight to fiction from the start. :)
Thanks for the perspective, Greg, and thanks for dropping by!
I’ve just started reading the Canadian best selling novel “The Book of Negroes” by Lawrence Hill. To be a best seller in Canada I think you have to sell three books. Thus, I doubt you’ve heard of it despite its provocative title and its run away success. I’m telling you this because it deals exactly with your dilemma. Long ago, there used to be a registery of all the freed slaves in Canada, and it was called “The Book of Negroes”. I believe it just listed basic information like date and place of birth, previous owners and residences, current residence or date and place of death. Lawrence Hill was studying this historical and little known document, and he became fascinated with the information about one woman in particular who had lived many places in her long life, including England and Africa. Based on this sketchy information and a few other supporting documents that he found, Mr. Hill wrote a 470 page novel. It is rich in detail about real places and historical events, and the story is very compelling. It is classified as fiction because the author fills in the many blanks of the narrative with speculation. I recommend the book to anyone. But if you read it on the subway, hide the cover with something. That title takes way too much explaining.
On another note, that Wordsworth poem sucks. I had to memorize it in grade 5 and have had that crap raddling around in my brain ever since.
In this particular case, I would characterize it as fiction.
The question for me is whether you consider the soul of the piece to be fiction or non-fiction and how much of the fiction parts are based on fact as opposed to wild speculation.
Actually, I haven’t put much thought into this. Just really just wanted to say that I like your blog, Kel.
Thanks for the perspective, EQ. And thanks for dropping by! Very kind of you.
Just a follow-up to say thanks again to all. This story has definitely pushed past momentary meditation and into flight of fancy. Fiction it is, was, and ever shall be.