MAKING THINGS UP

I’m not writing this week. I’m fine with that, because I’m researching. It doesn’t mean I’m stumped about where to go next; in fact I’m having so many ideas I have to scribble them down for fear of forgetting them. But I’m weaving a real-life figure into my tale, as well as a well-known building, and I want to find out more about both.

As a journalist I was accustomed to researching my subject before interviewing and writing. But given the novel I’m writing now has the sub-title A Bedtime Story for Grown-ups, I hadn’t imagined research would be something I would be doing this time around.

Knowing about your subject informs your writing, even if you don’t use much of what you’ve learnt. Somehow it imbues your words with authority. I’ve been learning a lot this past week, much more than I will use, but that’s necessary in order to be able to choose which facts will come in useful.

Trawling the internet and reading biographies feels like I’m putting in proper work. It also got me thinking about a larger question, too. How much do we really have to know our stuff, if we’re writing fiction?

I’m frequently surprised when watching biographical movies how much the truth is bent, and how that fiction becomes reality for those who didn’t now much about the event/character/era. Does the same thing happen in writing? Do we have a duty to faithfully depict events and characters as they truly were? Or can we play with them?

And, worse: could this be some sort of appropriation? Not cultural, but taking liberties with someone’s history?

Truth be told, I’m uneasy about the strictures that appropriation can put on us. Only a gay actor can play a gay part. A man can’t write about being a woman and vice versa. A privileged person can’t write about poverty. And so on. All this does is rob us of our right to exercise our imagination. If we can only write about what we know, essentially our own experiences, the creative world would be a much duller environment.

I know the above is simplistic, but it did make me question what right I had to wheel on real people onto my pages. I don’t for a minute believe any reader would take it seriously – the entire plot is a big ‘what if’ moment – but I do want these characters and events to have more than a ring of authenticity.

Doing the research not only gives credence to my grown-up fairy tale, but also satisfies my journalistic need for accuracy. I might be putting words into these characters’ mouths, but I will have learnt enough about them to be confident it’s the type of thing they would say in the circumstances.

And I’m happy with that.