To clarify :)

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: For the record, I've been discussing this on another forum and a good many of the responses seem to think that there's little difference between a fiction author getting some factoid wrong (like putting a safety on a Glock, which doesn't have a safety in case you didn't know :) and a non-fiction writer who makes up stuff

I have a feeling I'm starting to sound stuffy (oh no!) but I do think it's different if you're presenting yourself as a non-fiction writer.  With a memoir, while it's clearly better stylistically to sometimes merge several characters into one in order for clarity (for example), it does bother me a bit if someone exaggerates beyond a certain point (yes, clearly, a line we draw in the sand and for each of us, it's in a different place).  

If you were at a party where someone was relating a true story, and at some point the inconsistencies got too horrendous and you realized you were listening to a blowhard, wouldn't you treat everything else coming out of their mouths a bit differently, knowing it's a creative product rather than literal fact?  I'm not saying I'd like it better or less, but I'd evaluate it differently.  If a fiction writer has a character falling off a six story building and surviving, that's literary license.  If a real person claims to have survived a six story fall, that's headline news!

So, where do you draw the line?  How much creative license turns non-fiction into fiction...and do we care?

Maggie
webmaven@gregrucka.com







: I have a feeling I'm starting to sound stuffy (oh no!) but I do think it's different if you're presenting yourself as a non-fiction writer.  With a memoir, while it's clearly better stylistically to sometimes merge several characters into one in order for clarity (for example), it does bother me a bit if someone exaggerates beyond a certain point (yes, clearly, a line we draw in the sand and for each of us, it's in a different place).  

: If you were at a party where someone was relating a true story, and at some point the inconsistencies got too horrendous and you realized you were listening to a blowhard, wouldn't you treat everything else coming out of their mouths a bit differently, knowing it's a creative product rather than literal fact?  I'm not saying I'd like it better or less, but I'd evaluate it differently.  If a fiction writer has a character falling off a six story building and surviving, that's literary license.  If a real person claims to have survived a six story fall, that's headline news!

: So, where do you draw the line?  How much creative license turns non-fiction into fiction...and do we care?

: Maggie
: webmaven@leechild.com


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