{"id":2158,"date":"2019-12-03T09:00:05","date_gmt":"2019-12-03T14:00:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.shanafigueroa.com\/blog\/?p=2158"},"modified":"2019-11-11T18:58:54","modified_gmt":"2019-11-11T23:58:54","slug":"how-to-use-fiction-to-tell-the-truth","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.shanafigueroa.com\/blog\/how-to-use-fiction-to-tell-the-truth\/","title":{"rendered":"How to Use Fiction to Tell the Truth"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

[This blog was originally published in Night Owl Reviews<\/a>]<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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What if I told you the best fiction was all about telling\nthe truth?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cBut Shana, it\u2019s fiction!<\/em>\u201d\nyou might respond. \u201cIt\u2019s not real! How is my erotic paranormal romance about\nshapeshifting unicorns supposed to tell the truth about anything?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Well, let me explain\u2026BTW, if YOU have written an erotic\nparanormal romance about shapeshifting unicorns, PLEASE SEND ME THE BUY LINK\nASAP.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

One of the major reasons for the existence of fiction is to\nilluminate larger truths which may not be obvious in real life. The real world\nis structure-less and clouded in random chance. It\u2019s no coincidence the\nearliest forms of fiction were morality tales. For instance, how would you ever\nknow \u201csharing is caring\u201d if, on your way to a neighboring tribe to share your\nharvest bounty, you\u2019re randomly attacked by a bear and die? You get around\nthose inconvenient roving predators by constructing your own alternate reality\nwhere that homicidal bear was never in the woods to begin with, or maybe you\nfight it off with your bare hands in slow motion and fashion its carcass into a\nbeautiful coat to give to the village chief, thereby securing peace between\nyour tribes (because sharing is caring).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Much like the fog of war, where uncertainty conceals the\ntrue situation on the ground (I\u2019m in the military, so excuse my war references),\nan author must peel back the fog of reality to reveal the truth. (Note this\nonly applies to works of art<\/strong>, and\nnot, for instance, scientific facts or history\u2026that\u2019s called self-delusion.)\n\nOf course, characters can\u2019t just look at the\ncamera or reader and say, \u201cSee? Caring is sharing!\u201d \u2026Unless your point is to\nskewer the banality of morality tales, which is in itself a form of truth. Two opposing\nideas can be true at the same time, after all. \n\n\n\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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You need to present your truth in the subtext<\/strong> of your story. What do the plot and the character\u2019s actions mean?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Say your fake caveman alter ego presented the beautiful\nbearskin coat to the chief of the neighboring tribe, but instead of graciously\naccepting the gift the chief throws it into the fire and executes you? What\u2019s\nthe truth you\u2019re trying to illuminate now? It\u2019s certainly not \u201csharing is\ncaring.\u201d Every action in your story should highlight the same deeper truth. Stray\nfrom your established subtext, and you end up with a muddled mess that won\u2019t\ngel with your audience. It comes off as untruthful.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ever had a deeply negative reaction to a story? That was\nprobably because you found something in it to be untruthful. The truth of a\nlife experience is subjective, which accounts for the range of what people like\nand don\u2019t like. The closer you get to a universal truth, the more appealing\nit\u2019ll be. For instance: the overall subtext of the movie Moonlight<\/em> is to love yourself. That\u2019s a pretty powerful message\nwhich resonates with nearly everyone, hence the strong positive reception of\nthe film.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On the other end of the spectrum, for instance, is the movie\nBlade Runner 2049<\/em>. Now don\u2019t get me\nwrong. I LOVED the original Blade Runner<\/em>;\nit\u2019s literally my favorite movie. I spent months squealing with excitement over\nthe sequel, and was ready to go full-on fan girl and love it to bits. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Then I saw it. Dammit. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\nIt didn\u2019t ring true for me, the primary reason\nhaving to do with the main character\u2019s annoying fake girlfriend who\u2019s\nunfortunately a major part of the movie and drags the whole thing down like a\nbeautiful, soulless Kraken.\n\n\n\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nYou\nsee, the girlfriend, Joi, is a computer program owned by K (Ryan Gosling\u2019s\ncharacter). We\u2019re reminded multiple times throughout the movie that she\u2019s a\nmass-produced product specifically designed to look, act, and speak in any way\nthe owner wants her to. She\u2019s literally a manic pixie dream girl hologram who\u2019s\nthe only source of happiness for Gosling\u2019s melancholy K. We\u2019re supposed to be\ninvested in their relationship, yet we\u2019re told over and over again, without\napparent irony, that she\u2019s NOT REAL. This culminates in a cringe-worthy sex\nscene where a prostitute play-acts being Joi while K looks on with that pensive\nblank stare Gosling does when he\u2019s trying to portray deep emotions or maybe\njust farted. (Gosling seems like a nice guy and all, but let\u2019s get real\u2014would\nanyone consider him a good actor if he wasn\u2019t so very, very pretty?)\n\n\n\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nI\nassume the scriptwriters were trying to make the audience question what makes a\nperson \u201creal,\u201d as that was the whole point of the movie. But instead of\nhonestly answering the question, they subbed in a fake female stand-in whose\nonly purpose was to help the male hero through his emotional journey.\nIrrespective of her character\u2019s place in the fictional world, in the movie she\nstill played out as a tired, sexist stereotype with no hint she was intended to\nbe subversive. Even if the writers had made her a human being in the movie, a\nmanic pixie dream girl is still not a real person and I therefore didn\u2019t give a\nrat\u2019s buttocks about her. The movie tried to sell me an untruth (that Joi is a\nreal person according to K and we should therefore care about her\u2026because\ncaring is what makes something real!), and I wasn\u2019t buying.\n\n\n\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Okay, maybe I\u2019m very slightly overinvested in my annoyance\nwith Blade Runner 2049<\/em>. That\u2019s the\nreaction you get when a work of art is untruthful. So ask yourself: what\u2019s the\nsubtext, or theme, of my story? Does my story consistently support the theme?\nAm I using clich\u00e9s or stereotypes in place of the truth? \n\nRemember: the closer you are to a universal truth,\nthe more it will resonate with your audience\u2014or rub them the wrong way when it\ndoesn\u2019t.\n\n\n\n<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

[This blog was originally published in Night Owl Reviews] What if I told you the best fiction was all about telling the truth? \u201cBut Shana, it\u2019s fiction!\u201d you might respond. \u201cIt\u2019s not real! How is my erotic paranormal romance about shapeshifting unicorns supposed to tell the truth about anything?\u201d Well, let me explain\u2026BTW, if YOU … <\/p>\n

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