Is It Fiction or Nonfiction?
Okay, now you're set to go. Or are you? You better make sure it's nonfiction you're writing if that's your intent. This may appear to be a simple matter, but it is not. Despite the fact that nonfiction is based on facts and purported to be true and fiction arises from the writer's imagination, it is not a question of black and white but rather an issue cloaked in shades of gray.
How Can the Reader Tell the Difference?
Theoretically, only the writer knows for certain whether her work should be classified as fiction or nonfiction, and we'll get to this soon. But first, doesn't it seem probable that an attentive reader can discern the difference? See for yourself with these two excerpts from different books:
“The other white cook, Andy, lives on his dry-docked boat, which, as far as I can tell from his loving descriptions, can't be more than twenty feet long. He offers to take me out on it once it's repaired, but the offer comes with inquiries as to my marital status, so I do not follow up on it.”
“This is the story of my older brother's strange criminal behavior and his disappearance. No one urged me to reveal these things; no one asked me not to. We who loved him simply no longer speak of Wade, not among ourselves and not with anyone else, either.”
Can you say for certain which is fiction and which is nonfiction? The first excerpt is from Barbara Ehrenreich's Nickel and Dimed, a work of nonfiction about the time she entered the world of the “working poor” for a year. The second excerpt is the beginning of Affliction, a novel by Russell Banks that was subsequently made into a movie.
Now if you had picked the correct answers, ask yourself, “How did I know?” because it really is nothing more than a good guess on your part. As you shall see later in this chapter and again in Chapter 19, some works of nonfiction read like fiction and there are works of fiction that ring so true it is hard to believe they are not. The bottom line is that the reader can never be certain and must rely on the writer's representation in order to know whether it's fact or fiction.
Sometimes Only the Writer Knows
How many times have you watched a movie where the plot was so fantastic that were it not for the phrase “based on a true story,” you would never have believed it to be true? On the other hand, how many times have you watched a movie that was entirely invented and you didn't enjoy it because it was simply “not realistic?”
The same standard applies to the written word — particularly essays and books. The problem is that while you know in movies many liberties are taken with the facts, you do not allow the same latitude with works of nonfiction because by definition, nonfiction means it is factual. But like movie scripts, in nonfiction only the writer of the words knows for certain from whence they came. Consequently, not only are there legal ramifications for the nonfiction writer who represents to the publisher that the work is true, but there are ethical obligations to the readers, which will be explored more thoroughly in Chapter 20.
