ARE FICTIONAL WORKS BASED ON REAL EXPERIENCES?

When I was in college, one of my favorite TV shows was the daytime soap, Another World. I wanted to be a writer so the fictional story surrounding Cory Publishing Company was always appealing. Felicia was the romance writer whose "real-life" adventures rivaled those in her novels.

People do occasionally ask me if my stories are based on real experiences. My answer is "yes" and "no." Most of my magazine articles have been biographical, usually based on travels or my experiences as a teacher. My books are part escapism, part therapy.

Take the trilogy I am working on now.  Wendy in A New Season is a school teacher. She does have a son and does rescue an abandoned dog.  All that is real. Even the experience where Wendy is pulled over by a traffic cop is based on reality. The rest is mostly fabrication, an interesting story.

You see that mixture with most authors. Louisa May Alcott's, Little Women, was fiction based on her own experiences growing up with her sisters. Even the father that left his family to fight in the war was much like the father who frequently abandoned his family to take care of other matters. The women, at a young age, learned to fend for themselves.

Why do authors mix fiction with their own experiences? We are taught to write about things we know. It gives the story a sense of authenticity. In some sense, writer let others know a little about themselves that they might not otherwise share. The writer becomes vulnerable. In that respect, writing can be a frightening thing.

PERSON OF INTEREST--When Fiction Feels Real--part 3

I began these entries as way to examine the popularity of a single TV show, that has struck a chord with its fans. Though clearly fiction, often evoking the mood of super-hero comic books, there are certain themes that make the show feel authentic.

First, we examined the paranoia that the average person feels, whether shopping in the mall, or driving under a traffic light. The second theme was that of deception--people and situations aren't as they first appeared. The final theme of Person Of Interest--and my personal favorite--is the theme of redemption.

Reese was once a soldier, then a CIA agent. When we are first introduced to him, he is homeless and living in New York. Carter arrests him after he fights off bad guys in a subway. She tries to give him some advice, one vet to another. Then a stranger, Finch, posts his bail and hires him to do a job that no one else can do. Finch knows Reese is the man for this job, because he has been watching him.

Reese is given the chance to make up for whatever he did in a former life that filled him with regret and self-loathing. He solves crimes and prevents murders in a vigilante style, though more efficient than the police. All the clues are given by Finch's creation, The Machine. In the episode, By the Numbers, Reese is critically injured and, as Finch attempts to save him, Reese thanks his partner for a chance to redeem himself.

--But Reese is not the only redemption story. In the first episode, Fusco is a dirty cop who intends to kill Reese and dump his body in a swamp. Reese forces Fusco to become his lackey instead. By the end of the first season Fusco admits that it feels good to be known as a good cop again. The feeling doesn't last long as Fusco is forced to go under-cover as a bad cop, to continue to work for the good-guys.

It is that feeling of redemption that drives this show. --But our characters are limited and sometimes make mistakes. They are sometimes manipulated by Elias and used as his pawns. Redemption is a difficult thing to attain when one is working in the human realm. --And Elias proves to be a formidable foe.

We feel Reese's struggle. We mourn over Fusco as his name continues to be soiled, and we wonder what is in Finch's past that drives him to lose one identity and constantly create new ones. Even Carter has past regrets that haunt her.

Maybe we look at our own secrets and hope it is possible to somehow redeem ourselves. Maybe we can make amends, recreate ourselves, and create a better life for those we love. Maybe that hope helps fuel the popularity of Person Of Interest.

WHEN FICTION FEELS REAL/PERSON OF INTEREST, post 2

Person of Interest is a CBS TV program that is part of the Thursday night line-up. It is an action/adventure show that occasionally gives homage to movie heroes like Mad Max, Dirty Harry, and Batman.

The show has a very loyal fan base and I believe part of that comes from universal themes that strike deep emotional chords with viewers. In my last post, I discussed briefly the feeling of paranoia--the idea that we are all being watched.

Today I would like to explore the theme of deception, the idea that people or situations are not as they first appear. In each episode our heroes, Reese and Finch, are assigned by the "all-seeing" machine at least one social security number of a person who is either going to be a victim of, or is planning to commit a crime. Reese and Finch must decide how to intervene.

In one episode Reese follows a caring, talented doctor he thinks is being stalked by a serial rapists. In reality she is stalking the rapists, planning to kill him so he cannot rape again. People in this show have many layers. They can be a mixture of both good and bad.

In another show, a talented and much loved school teacher's life is saved by Reese. This man turns out to be the heartless mob leader, Elias, who kills without remorse.

On the other hand, Reese and Finch have met their share of suspicious people, who turned out to be totally different. For example, there was the apartment superintendent who liked to tell tall tales. In the end his tales turned out to be the truth.

Viewers can strongly connect to the reveal of the characters we meet each week. After all, how many of us have "made friends" with someone at work, only to have that person stab us in the back for a promotion? What about the person in our social circle who loves a good tidbit of gossip--to use against us when necessary? Let's not forget the friend who "stole" the person you wanted to date.

--And what about those people who we first wrote off as useless, who later became important in our lives. P.O.I. seems real because we can relate to the situation. People are seldom what they first appear to be. Only time reveals one's true character. P.O.I. takes the time to develop those characters.