Do you ever mix fact and fiction?

[MillieDynamite]

A western writer has in one of his stories, several fact based incidences. He has a three hangings that go horrible wrong, all take from history. He also has a deer killing two Indians who were about to gut the buck.

Turns out this story is also based on a historical incident. In Colorado, in the 1970s, two hunters were tracking a deer. One of them shot the deer, for some reason taking a head shot. Head shots are no, no's on hunting deer because it can mess up the antlers. When they hauled the dear up by one of it's feet, to drain the blood, gut, and skin him, he can came around, slashed both men with his antlers.

Turns out, the bullet struck an antler and glanced downward striking the dear in the jaw and knocking him unconscious. When they pulled up, using the branch of tree, he woke up and tried to free himself. One man died the other man survived. The dear, with a second blast from the 30-30 died as well.

I'm not sure what happened to the deer. The man returned to his life, lost his best friend, and earned the wrath of the dead mans wife. This particular writer always finds tidbits from history and weaves them though his stories. Some are placed in the historically time they happen, other are just things that have happened that have been included in the stories.

So what about you guys? Do you use real events fictionalized into your stories?

 

[oggbashan]

Yes, several of my stories include facts. My first Halloween Contest entry is based on the burial ground Cross Bones, which exists and was the place where 15,000 people were buried in unconsecrated ground, and it was disturbed by an extension of London's Underground.

https://crossbones.org.uk/

My recent story Too Much Sand is based at Camber Sands which is as described - painful because of fine wind-blown sand whenever there is a strong wind.

 

[MelissaBaby]

Well, not exactly, but the Halloween story I wrote last year, The Dancing Ghost of Webster's Gore, was partially inspired by the legend of Col. Jonathan Buck, founder of Bucksport Maine, who supposedly sentenced a woman to hang for witchcraft back in the 1700s. She was said to have cursed him for executing an innocent woman, and said that his grave would be marked for all time to indicate his shame.

After he died, this image, thought to be the hanged woman's foot, appeared on his grave.

https://i1.wp.com/livingwithagolden.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/LWAG-Witchs-leg-dancing-on-Bucks-grave.jpg

There are two problems with this story, though. First of all, there is no historical record of any such execution. In fact, there is no record of anyone ever being executed for witchcraft in Maine.

And secondly, if she was not a witch, why did the curse work?

 

[LAHomedog]

I do it all of the time.

 

[KeithD]

It's called fiction.

 

[ElectricBlue]

So what about you guys? Do you use real events fictionalized into your stories?

Often. I have a writer's theory that if in every story there's a kernel of absolute truth, the effect of that kernel will permeate the whole story, readers will sense it, and be prepared to suspend a thousand miles of disbelief. Typically, in my stories, it's the nub of a conversation, a visual scene, a shadow on a wall, something tiny that actually happened to me.

 

[MillieDynamite]

It's called fiction.

You seem to believe no fiction is inspired by true stories. Consider this story, it has been done several times. https://history.denverlibrary.org/news/tale-denver-spider-man

From the article
"Perhaps this tale sounds familiar to you, because the legend lives on. In the 1950s Erle Stanley Gardner mentions this case in his Cool and Lam novel Beware the Curves. CSI: Crime Scene Investigation updated this story for the twenty-first century in season 2 with the episode "Stalker" in 2002. At a live episode at the Boulder Theatre in 2017, co-host of the podcast "My Favorite Murder" Karen Kilgariff shared the story of the Denver Spider Man, which is how yours truly first learned of the story."

Actual events are used constantly to make fiction more believable. It's called fiction to protect you from a lawsuit ... or don't you remember the Law & Order advertising "Ripped from the headlines." While they fictionalized the stories, they took the inspiration from real life.

 

[KeithD]

You seem to believe no fiction is inspired by true stories.

False assumption. I don't think anyone who read any of my stories here would jump to that assumption.

 

[SexyShel]

I think all stories must contain loads of facts, people drive in cars, have sex on beds etc, etc. So where do you draw the line about using "fact" ?

In my stories I will use real places, for instance a pub we go into in Amsterdam, the events that happened in there and described in one of my stories are real, but certain other stuff in the same story did not happen or was exaggerated.

Why worry ? If it adds realism to the story or is essential for the story just go with it.

 

[lovecraft68]

The e-book I'm trying to wrap up contains facts about the city of Burrilville RI as far as when it was founded and the native American tribe that was there, but from there I work my own fictional myths into it

Many stories take facts then take liberties with said facts, if we didn't it would be non fiction.

 

[BiscuitHammer]

I refer to real events in my stories constantly, both current, recent past, and historical. For example, in my Mike & Karen story, I refer to the infamous 'bath house raids' in 1980, and it's a sore spot for one of my characters, since she's gay.

My story Time Rider is all about time travel, so historical events are very often my backdrop, even though the story is fictional within it.

Not only do I love doing it for myself, but a lot of my readers enjoy it, seemingly.

 

[MillieDynamite]

False assumption. I don't think anyone who read any of my stories here would jump to that assumption.

I didn't ask if people would jump to an assumption based on your writing, I asked if you ever included true events or true facts in your writing.

 

[TxRad]

Do fictional facts count.

Some writers use a lot of their life in their stories. How much is fact and how much is fiction? Does it really matter as long as the story is good.

 

[rescatooor]

I didn't ask if people would jump to an assumption based on your writing, I asked if you ever included true events or true facts in your writing.

I'd ask: how can you not?

 

[NotWise]

I didn't ask if people would jump to an assumption based on your writing, I asked if you ever included true events or true facts in your writing.

I think what KeithD was saying, in the most laconic way possible, was that fiction very commonly incorporates actual facts and events.

 

[MillieDynamite]

I have quite few rough stories based on my various times living on the streets. I may or may not ever fix them up and publish them.

Cold Encounter - A Flash Story was about one time I was when I was living on the street and was raped. I wasn't a virgin anymore by the time it happened, but much of what is in there was real. Including the terrible feelings of enjoying what happened to a degree. Though not as much as the girl in the story. I also changed the age to fit the rules.

 

[TarnishedPenny]

Even ignoring the entire genre of historical fiction, I think a lot of fiction has at least some element of hard fact in it. I have one story set in WW1 and postwar England; it includes a number of social and economic facts surrounding women of the time. Another involves a couple watching a (real) Brigette Nielsen movie. Another is a romance between two broken Afghanistan veterans. Any story mentioning COVID-19 has some basis in fact. To some extent, even minor details (eg characters with smart phones) are facts. Mind you, the latter would have been Buck Rogers or Dick Tracy wildness 75 years ago.

 

[MillieDynamite]

Often. I have a writer's theory that if in every story there's a kernel of absolute truth, the effect of that kernel will permeate the whole story, readers will sense it, and be prepared to suspend a thousand miles of disbelief. Typically, in my stories, it's the nub of a conversation, a visual scene, a shadow on a wall, something tiny that actually happened to me.

I agree, I think you need a little truth, at least in your best stories, that can percolate through the story and give a resonance of reality. Even in over the top horror there can be a tidbit of truth.

The fear in Written in Blood was my fear. It wasn't a fear of vampires but a very deep fear I had before I ran away from home. I remember how felt and why I left.

 

[HeyAll]

I get a lot of my ideas/plots from news stories.

One time I read a story about a female detective, a black woman who broke a lot of ground with her success and there were even plans to make a movie about her. She was sent to prison over something she denies.

I took the basic premise of that and turned it into a mom/son story, where she gets out of prison and her son is a cop. They turn the situation around on the police brass who framed her (which deviats far from the true story) and they have sex in front of the men to gain their trust. She's planning revenge though.

Funny thing, a longtime reader of mine, a woman, asked me over an audio chat if that was based on a true story because she read something similar. I was suprised anyone caught it.

 

[Comshaw]

A western writer has in one of his stories, several fact based incidences. He has a three hangings that go horrible wrong, all take from history. He also has a deer killing two Indians who were about to gut the buck.

Turns out this story is also based on a historical incident. In Colorado, in the 1970s, two hunters were tracking a deer. One of them shot the deer, for some reason taking a head shot. Head shots are no, no's on hunting deer because it can mess up the antlers. When they hauled the dear up by one of it's feet, to drain the blood, gut, and skin him, he can came around, slashed both men with his antlers.

Turns out, the bullet struck an antler and glanced downward striking the dear in the jaw and knocking him unconscious. When they pulled up, using the branch of tree, he woke up and tried to free himself. One man died the other man survived. The dear, with a second blast from the 30-30 died as well.

I'm not sure what happened to the deer. The man returned to his life, lost his best friend, and earned the wrath of the dead mans wife. This particular writer always finds tidbits from history and weaves them though his stories. Some are placed in the historically time they happen, other are just things that have happened that have been included in the stories.

So what about you guys? Do you use real events fictionalized into your stories?

After an existence on this earth of 14 lustrums and having lived through interesting times, I have lot of experiences to draw on. Additionally, to me, accounts of real incidences are like catnip to a cat. I sponge them up when ever I find them.

With those two things combined, it would be impossible not to base some of my stories on fact. And almost every one of my tales have elements of factual events in them.

An example: the fight scene in one of my stories was an almost blow for blow account of an incident in high school.

So yeah, I add real things to my fictional stories.

Comshaw

 

[Jackie.Hikaru]

Even ignoring the entire genre of historical fiction, I think a lot of fiction has at least some element of hard fact in it. I have one story set in WW1 and postwar England; it includes a number of social and economic facts surrounding women of the time. Another involves a couple watching a (real) Brigette Nielsen movie. Another is a romance between two broken Afghanistan veterans. Any story mentioning COVID-19 has some basis in fact. To some extent, even minor details (eg characters with smart phones) are facts. Mind you, the latter would have been Buck Rogers or Dick Tracy wildness 75 years ago.

Which of your stories features Afghanistan vets? Would love to read it

 

[Zeb_Carter]

Yep several of my stories contain facts from my history. And some facts from the time in which they take place. Nothing of major significance but they mean something to me.

 

[SimonDoom]

I think we all do in one way or another. All of us write fiction that is, at the very least, filtered through and influenced by our real-life experiences and what we know.

My stories lean more to what I would call the "fantasy projection" side. For the most part they are not based on real-life experiences very closely. But they are a little bit. And I incorporate things I have personal familiarity with into my stories, including knowledge about certain kinds of settings, or jobs, or hobbies or interests.

So far, I've never written historical fiction, so I haven't had to do any historical research for any of my stories.

For my Penis Fish story, I did some research on the species of annelid that is nick-named the Penis Fish in the real world, although my creature was actually an alien that merely looked like it.

 

[TadOverdon]

I think it's inevitable that if you do research for a story, and obviously not all stories require that, some elements of fact find their way in. I try to rearrange the bits enough that they don't match up perfectly with the real event but at the same time don't look like I'm recounting something true while getting the facts wrong.

The fact that many sailors on American whaling schooners in the 19th century were free black men was important at one point in the story I'm writing now (in revision the whole scene where it comes up has been way reduced in significance as I slash away at exposition). But I invented the particular ship involved in the events in question, basing the name on a common pattern at the time (a lot of them were named after people - the Evelina M. Goulart, the Governor Stone, etc.).

As far as autobiographical truth, well...

 

[oggbashan]

I try to make all my stories, except Fantasy and Sci_fi, believable by setting them with real events and real practices. That is mixing fact with fiction but the end result is a fictional story.