Truth in Fiction and Emotional Vulnerability of Characters

On May 1st I attended a workshop by Margaret Stohl about “Truth in Fiction.” She is the co-author of Beautiful Creatures and has a new book, ICONS, coming out this month.

People always say, write what you know. But when you write fiction, especially science fiction and fantasy, what you know may have little to do with your story. For example, how relevant is a receptionist in modern dentist’s office to a historical fantasy? Unless that’s your protagonist’s job, it might not provide much fodder for your story, but in the case of a historical fantasy the day-to-day knowledge of the job wouldn’t fit the time period for the story.

The “write what you know” theory goes deeper than what you consciously think you know. It speaks to emotional truths and truths of life. Your entire story may be made-up, but your characters need to feel like real people for your readers to connect to them. In order for them to feel real, you need to share the characters’ vulnerabilities, their flaws, and their emotional truths.

This is one issue I’ve struggled with in my writing. It’s hard to be mean to your characters. It’s hard to give your characters impossible choices where no matter what they choose, there’s no right answer. We all want to give our characters better lives than our own. But the struggle is part of what makes a story interesting.

It’s even more difficult to engrain your characters with the emotions of those conflicts – because people might miss-interpret. Just because I write about a certain topic or emotional state doesn’t mean it relates directly to my own life.

I know a poet who wrote a very emotional piece about a family mourning the son they lost in a war. Several people in the audience at the event assumed the poem was the poet’s own personal story and told him they were sorry for his loss.

It is frightening to let yourself be vulnerable by making your characters show their weaknesses. That is one of the biggest things that holds writers back. But even a New York Times Best-Selling author like Margaret Stohl experiences the same feelings as those of us still struggling to sell our first book.

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