annethology
  • Home
    • About Annethology
    • About me >
      • A little more about me
    • About my books
    • Author talks
    • Contact me
    • Forthcoming events
    • World Mental Health Day
    • Privacy
    • Sign up for my newsletter
  • Sugar and Snails
    • Acknowledgements
    • Blog tour, Q&A's and feature articles >
      • Birthday blog tour
      • S&S on tour 2022
    • Early endorsements
    • Events >
      • Launch photos
      • Launch party videos
    • in pictures
    • Media
    • If you've read the book
    • Polari
    • Reading group questions
    • Reviews
    • In the media
  • Underneath
    • Endorsements and reviews
    • Launch party and events
    • Pictures
    • Questions for book groups
    • The stories underneath the novel
  • Matilda Windsor series
    • Matilda Windsor >
      • What readers say
      • For book groups
      • Interviews, articles and features
      • Matty on the move
      • Who were you in 1990?
      • Asylum lit
      • Matilda Windsor media
    • Stolen Summers >
      • Stolen Summers reviews
  • Short stories
    • Somebody’s Daughter
    • Becoming Someone (anthology) >
      • Becoming Someone (video readings)
      • Becoming Someone reviews
      • Becoming Someone online book chat
    • Print and downloads
    • Read it online
    • Quick reads
  • Free ebook
  • Annecdotal
    • Annecdotal blog
    • Annecdotal Press
    • Articles >
      • Print journalism
      • Where psychology meets fiction
    • Fictional therapists
    • Reading and reviews >
      • Reviews A to H
      • Reviews I to M
      • Reviews N to Z
      • Nonfiction
      • Themed quotes
      • Reading around the world
  • Shop
    • Inspired Quill (my publisher)
    • Bookshop.org (affiliate link)
    • Amazon UK
    • Amazon US
    • books2read

About the author and blogger ...

Anne Goodwin’s drive to understand what makes people tick led to a career in clinical psychology. That same curiosity now powers her fiction.
A prize-winning short-story writer, she has published three novels and a short story collection with small independent press, Inspired Quill. Her debut novel, Sugar and Snails, was shortlisted for the 2016 Polari First Book Prize.
Away from her desk, Anne guides book-loving walkers through the Derbyshire landscape that inspired Charlotte Brontë’s Jane Eyre.
Subscribers to her newsletter can download a free e-book of award-winning short stories.

TELL ME MORE

Is fiction true?

30/4/2017

15 Comments

 
When a therapist meets a new client she has little chance of verifying whether the story she hears is true. Given that the person consulting her has little motivation to lie, it’s reasonable for the therapist to take the client’s account on trust. Even on those occasions when the client has deliberately misled the therapist, as Stephen Grosz discovered after one of his clients seemingly came back from the dead, that deception is part of a deeper truth they need to bring to the light.

Picture
I tend to read fiction in a similar way to how I used to approach my work as a clinician. In fact, in fiction, as opposed to memoir, I find it liberating not having to concern myself with whether the story with which I’m presented is true. When fiction works it takes me beyond the surface facts to the emotional truth of the human condition.

But in this
post-truth era readers and writers have an extra layer of responsibility to be careful with the facts. So when, as I often do, I assume a story has taught me something about a situation or culture beyond my direct experience, am I deluding myself? As with the client who spoke about being part of the aristocracy in her own country, should I believe what I’m told or take it with a pinch of salt?

I’ve been wondering about this since a comment in response to my reviews of
two novels on the lives of Nigerian women took me by surprise. Norah Colvin, who blogs about living, loving, laughing and learning and has been a great supporter of my own writing, commented:

I often wonder how much we can extrapolate about a nation from fiction. I dare say fiction set in "exotic" locations tend to provide no more factual information than novels set in our own countries. I always reserve judgement.

Was I, like those tourists who, having spent their two weeks’ holiday in an all-inclusive resort, parade their “knowledge” of the country to all and sundry on returning home, overgeneralising from a brief, and probably biased, acquaintance? A reviewer needs to guard against this, especially in relation to less accessible cultures or closed communities.

When
the brain responds to the fictional in exactly the same way as to a real-life encounter, we do need to remind herself sometimes that it didn’t really happen. We can mistake a story for reality whether we read for relaxation or to face up to the dark. Since the story is co-constructed between reader and writer, our personal prejudices must play a part. Yet it’s also the case that, in providing a safe space in which to be curious, fiction can have the opposite impact and facilitate empathy for lives vastly different to our own.

On that basis, I don’t think it’s a copout to say that well-written fiction that goes beyond escapism can be both true and not true at the same time. We know it’s made up, but it can still connect us across barriers of language, religion and culture and, in so doing, help us to grow. Reading
two novels on the lives of Nigerian women does not make me an expert on that country, but it does provide me a position from which I can explore more. But what do you think? What’s your relationship to fiction, facts and truth?

Meanwhile, do check out my views on the other books
reviewed on Annecdotal this month.

Picture
With under four weeks until the launch of my second novel, Underneath, I’m deeply embroiled in the fourth draft of my novel set in the psychiatric hospital (originally entitled Closure, then changed to Secrets and Lies and I’m now calling High Hopes). I’m enjoying getting deeper into the characters and their predicaments and, while only one of the points of view is of someone with a diagnosed mental disorder, all three have their blindspots. One of the challenges of the novel, however, is of conveying the weird world of mental health care – important not only for the credibility of the setting but for the reader to understand what’s at stake – without dumping information. It’s especially difficult (although actually tremendous fun) when the point of view character with the most experience of the culture believes she’s a lady in a grand country house.

Picture
In a new scene I wrote a couple of days ago, septuagenarian Matty has her own ideas about the purpose of the injection she’s given every other week. As luck would have it, the new flash fiction prompt from Charli Mills to write a 99-word story about oil fits that perfectly – and it’s highly unlikely any other writers will have interpreted it this way. I’ve swapped the original maid for nurse, and hope that’s enough context for you to get what this is about.

Depot antipsychotics

As the medicine penetrated her muscle, it felt as if her posterior was swallowing castor oil. Sliding out the needle, the nurse rubbed the spot with cotton wool. “That’s it for another fortnight.”

Matty pulled up her panties. “No more babies.”

The nurse looked perplexed. “You do realise what your injection’s for?”

Was she old enough to know what men did to ladies in the dark? “For protection, of course.”

“That’s one way of putting it. Protection against disturbing thoughts.”

Matty nodded. So she did know about those shenanigans. She hoped it was not through personal experience.

Thanks for reading. I'd love to know what you think. If you've enjoyed this post, you might like to sign up via the sidebar for regular email updates and/or my quarterly Newsletter.
15 Comments
Norah Colvin link
30/4/2017 12:35:37 pm

Interesting post, Anne. Thank you for the mention. I think.
I stand by my position. I know I have read books set in Australia that don't reflect what life, as I know it, is like. We have previously (briefly) discussed Alexander McCall Smith's No 1 Ladies Detective Agency set in Botswana. While I thoroughly enjoyed them and found the setting interesting, I wouldn't assume it is reflective of Botswana as a whole. No more than I accept the plots and settings of movies. I guess I'm a disbeliever.
I am currently reading a biography. Not one of your favourite genres, I know, but one of mine. This one, The Saints are Coming by Gregory Jordan, is totally fascinating. Mind boggling even. It is about a Columban missionary in Juarez, Mexico. It is more horrific than many of the movies I have seen. And true. I have no qualms about believing it as the MC is the brother of my work colleague. It presents the situation from his Australian eyes as well as the eyes of some of the Mexicans with whom he works.
But I agree with you too. While we may question the details in fiction, they should speak to or reveal the larger truths of existence; or, as you say, "the emotional truths of human existence". If the stories challenge us to think about, connect with, and explore the lives of others and hopefully bring us to a sense of understanding and empathy, then that is a good thing.
I'm so looking forward to reading "Underneath" and can't believe that it's almost, finally, here.
I smiled at the second change of name for your third novel. Will the third name stick, or is it more a reflection of your feelings for it at this time?
I enjoyed your flash. I think I'm going to enjoy this story too. Keep writing!
Thanks for a post which got me thinking. It's been a while since we got stuck into a discussion.

Reply
Annecdotist
1/5/2017 03:05:58 pm

Thanks for extending the discussion with this extremely thoughtful response. You mentioned that biography in your original comment so it’s obviously had an impact. It does indeed sound interesting but nevertheless probably not for me.
I found it most helpful that you mentioned Alistair McCall Smith’s writing because one of the reasons why I didn’t like the one book I read from the Ladies Detective Agency series was because I didn’t think the setting was authentic. Then I have to ask myself, how can I say that when I believe he knows the country quite well whereas I have never been (although I have been to other parts of southern Africa)? I wouldn’t know whether he intends for his fictionalised Botswana to be taken as truthful, but I imagine not. It seems to me that these are to be read as light-hearted stories purely for entertainment. (This might seem unfair, but for me the simple tone of the writing, as far as I remember it is a continuation of the white colonial attitude to Africa, portraying it as a quirky – all these funny names, all these funny animals – yet nevertheless simple culture.) I felt very differently about the depiction of Nigeria in those other two novels, but it’s hard to say what I based that one, other than I thought they were covering serious issues in general and whether I’d have felt differently if they’d been written by a white person. Thanks for extending my thinking – it’s really a complex area (I suppose I should try to see whether there is any psychological research on how we judge authenticity!)
I’m interested in your interpretation of the title change for my third novel – I do have high hopes for it (although they’ve gone down a bit after yesterday’s rubbishy attempt, and I’m also wondering about how much my attempts to incorporate humour and tragedy will make it seem less credible) but I hadn’t seen the link. It is appropriate for the characters who all have high, and possibly unrealistic, hopes but for some reason what I really want for the title is a phrase. Such Dreadful Lies came quite close except that it’s more about secrets than lies and I had feedback from a person that they thought that made it sound like a thriller. Which it’s not. I’m going to have enough problems with readers might be disappointed that Underneath isn’t thrilling enough!!!
Thanks for this discussion. Like meliorism, I imagine this isn’t the end!

Reply
geoff le pard link
1/5/2017 02:57:16 pm

Interesting thought piece Anne; I'm sort of near Norah I think in preferring to be sceptical but willing to be proved right or wrong - i suspend my belief/disbelief for fiction anyway as we all have to do. I'm sure you have it with S&S, people wondering if it was about you and which bit, as if they needed to have that link to a reality to believe in it more. Maybe I faced that most with my first and less so later but people always wonder about the links in our fiction to some kind of personal link.
enjoyed your flash and the neat delusions that are there to see.

Reply
Annecdotist
1/5/2017 03:13:00 pm

Thank you, Geoff, it looks as if your comment came in just as I was composing my response to Norah’s. That’s an interesting perspective because I wasn’t (despite my title) thinking so much it had to be about the author but more whether it was credible, ie whether it could have happened. I see what you mean regarding Dead Flies, people will always wonder about the gap between reality and fiction. But there’s another issue regarding Sugar and Snails as when I set of writing that novel I didn’t have high hopes of accurately reflecting the reality of that particular identity (I expected readers to be sceptical) but the feedback from people who have gone through something akin to Diana’s process at that point in time is that it is credible. I’m not sure whether that supports my argument or not!!

Reply
Charli Mills
4/5/2017 06:50:51 am

Matty is a fun character and I recall her appearance in other stories. High Hopes seems a good title, though I can't say why except I like the idea of it against what the novel is about. I can see why she'd be a fun and yet challenging character and perspective to write. Look at you steaming ahead! You appear to be balancing revising and promoting well.

Your post brings up many interesting thoughts. In many ways, the most important truth in fiction is that it is believable. Any jarring wrong fact or inauthentic emotion or behavior, and the reader leaves the story. As for setting, place is important to me, whereas others might want authenticity of culture. Western writers are defined by a deep sense of place in the western to the inspiration of others to go and experience the west. I'm thinking of authors like Edward Abbey and Wallace Stegner. The mystery writer Tony Hillerman captures the Navajo Nation and culture so well, his novels are like anthropological insights. But outside the west, I think character driven literature or plot twisting genres matter more. I wonder though, there must be other places like the American west -- the highlands? the moors? the outback? Africa? Another thought is historical fiction. How accurate does each detail need to be? When interpreting controversial events or historical characters, how much license can the writer take. I try to stay within the boundaries of plausible and access a variety of historical records to get a broader feel for the details. Always a good discussion you get going!

Reply
Annecdotist
4/5/2017 10:51:09 am

Thank you, Charli, for this extremely rich response to my post. Reflecting on your points, I think a convincing setting is crucial, which can entail various components of which topography is just one. Different readers will want different things and I’m tending to look to be convinced regarding the culture.
On that point, I haven’t yet decided whether to locate my WIP in a genuine or fictional setting. Either way, I’m relying on memories since the longstay hospitals no longer exist in the form they were in the 1990s, although of course there is stuff online.
I’m glad you like the current title – it occurred to me that it sounds very like a Mike Leigh film (I don’t know if you’ve come across his stuff in the US but I really like it – it’s social satire with the dark side, but nevertheless kindly and life affirming) – anyway, I now thought to check and it is one of his early ones (not that that would bar me from using it).

Reply
Charli Mills
7/5/2017 03:55:06 am

With fiction there can be the flexibility of inventing institutions or destinations within a real location. I know some historical fiction writers combine places to create one setting for simplifying plot details. It's like choosing thread, but it has to look like it belongs in the final piece.

I'll have to look up Mike Leigh. I might know his films, but not realize it. I did catch the dark humor in the title and I think you have the ability to pull it off in such a way that it adds to the novel.

Annecdotist
8/5/2017 05:35:15 pm

You’re right, Charli, I’ll probably end up with hybrid – and many that use real locations alter some details to fit with the story.
One of Mike Leigh’s films Secrets and Lies is also pertinent to the theme of adoption in my WIP It’s a very poignant albeit amusing portrait of a woman who gets quite a shock when the sophisticated woman she gave up for adoption traces her. He also created Abigail's Party in the 70s – I’m not sure how that would translate to the US, but I would recommend it.

Charli Mills
8/5/2017 06:02:52 pm

I'll see if I can find those here! Thanks!

Norah Colvin link
4/5/2017 12:13:28 pm

Hi Anne. Thanks for your response to my comment, and to these other interesting comments which your post elicited. What a great discussion with much to consider, and quite a variety of views. I think you are spot on when you speak about the importance of authenticity.

Reply
Annecdotist
4/5/2017 05:37:50 pm

Thanks for coming back, Norah – and thanks for starting the debate in the first place. You seem to have managed to call in at quite a few of my posts today – I’m always delighted to receive your comments.

Reply
Norah Colvin link
8/5/2017 11:51:03 am

Thanks Anne. I enjoy our conversations. I'd probably respond more often if I wasn't so lazy; if I could leave a comment without filling in my details. I hope you do know that I always come back to read, even if my laziness gets the better of me. :)

Annecdotist
8/5/2017 05:43:26 pm

Thanks, Norah, I’m sure you are not lazy, just got lots going on. I appreciate you coming back is sometimes we have to leave these conversations and move onto the next one!
I’m sorry that it’s more hassle to leave comments on my blog compared to WordPress. As you know, I’ve thought about changing but I’m quite attached to this one.
I have to say that form filling is one area – perhaps the only one – in which voice-activated software has distinct advantage. I never have to type out my email address or website address as I just say the magic words and it appears on screen. There is a free voice-activated program with Microsoft which had a look at for an article writing but I can’t remember if it has the command facility – probably not, but if it did would be worth enabling it for this kind of thing (I don’t mean just for comments on my blog but any general online form filling)

jennifer link
1/6/2020 11:06:56 am

There are some interesting points in time in this article. There is some validity but I will take hold opinion until I look into it further. Good article, thanks and I want more! Added to my Feed as well.

Reply
readhowyouwant link
7/9/2020 11:38:25 am

It's very true that writer's strong imagination and writing experience has huge impact on the subconscious of the reader,especially if the later is going through a similar situation in his /her life.I am sharing a book which is very much relevant to the black lives matter.It's called "becoming Michelle" an autobiography of former first lady.

Reply



Leave a Reply.

    Picture
    Free ebook: click the image to claim yours.
    Picture
    OUT NOW: The poignant prequel to Matilda Windsor Is Coming Home
    Picture
    Find a review
    Picture
    Fictional therapists
    Picture
    Picture
    About Anne Goodwin
    Picture
    My published books
    entertaining fiction about identity, mental health and social justice
    Picture
    My latest novel, published May 2021
    Picture
    My debut novel shortlisted for the 2016 Polari First Book Prize
    Picture
    Picture
    My second novel published May 2017.
    Picture
    Short stories on the theme of identity published 2018
    Anne Goodwin's books on Goodreads
    Sugar and Snails Sugar and Snails
    reviews: 32
    ratings: 52 (avg rating 4.21)

    Underneath Underneath
    reviews: 24
    ratings: 60 (avg rating 3.17)

    Becoming Someone Becoming Someone
    reviews: 8
    ratings: 9 (avg rating 4.56)

    GUD: Greatest Uncommon Denominator, Issue 4 GUD: Greatest Uncommon Denominator, Issue 4
    reviews: 4
    ratings: 9 (avg rating 4.44)

    The Best of Fiction on the Web The Best of Fiction on the Web
    reviews: 3
    ratings: 3 (avg rating 4.67)

    2022 Reading Challenge

    2022 Reading Challenge
    Anne has read 2 books toward their goal of 100 books.
    hide
    2 of 100 (2%)
    view books
    Picture
    Annecdotal is where real life brushes up against the fictional.  
    Picture
    Annecdotist is the blogging persona of Anne Goodwin: 
    reader, writer,

    slug-slayer, tramper of moors, 
    recovering psychologist, 
    struggling soprano, 
    author of three fiction books.

    LATEST POSTS HERE
    I don't post to a schedule, but average  around ten reviews a month (see here for an alphabetical list), 
    some linked to a weekly flash fiction, plus posts on my WIPs and published books.  

    Your comments are welcome any time any where.

    Get new posts direct to your inbox ...

    Enter your email address:

    or click here …

    RSS Feed


    Picture

    Tweets by @Annecdotist
    Picture
    New short story, “My Dirty Weekend”
    Picture
    Let’s keep in touch – subscribe to my newsletter
    Picture
    Picture
    Picture
    Picture
    Picture
    Picture
    Picture

    Popular posts

    • Compassion: something we all need
    • Do spoilers spoil?
    • How to create a convincing fictional therapist
    • Instructions for a novel
    • Looking at difference, embracing diversity
    • Never let me go: the dilemma of lending books
    • On loving, hating and writers’ block
      On Pop, Pirates and Plagiarism
    • READIN' for HER reviews
    • Relishing the cuts
    • The fast first draft
    • The tragedy of obedience
    • Writers and therapy: a love-hate relationship?

    Categories/Tags

    All
    Animals
    Annecdotist Hosts
    Annecdotist On Tour
    Articles
    Attachment Theory
    Author Interviews
    Becoming Someone
    Being A Writer
    Blogging
    Bodies
    Body
    Bookbirthday
    Books For Writers
    Bookshops
    CB Book Group
    Character
    Childhood
    Christmas
    Classics
    Climate Crisis
    Coming Of Age
    Counsellors Cafe
    Creative Writing Industry
    Creativity
    Cumbria
    Debut Novels
    Disability
    Editing
    Emotion
    Ethics
    Ethis
    Family
    Feedback And Critiques
    Fictional Psychologists & Therapists
    Food
    Friendship
    Futuristic
    Gender
    Genre
    Getting Published
    Giveaways
    Good Enough
    Grammar
    Gratitude
    Group/organisational Dynamics
    Hero’s Journey
    History
    Humour
    Identity
    Illness
    Independent Presses
    Institutions
    International Commemorative Day
    Jane Eyre
    Kidney Disease
    Language
    LGBTQ
    Libraries
    Live Events
    Lyrics For The Loved Ones
    Marketing
    Matilda Windsor
    Memoir
    Memory
    Mental Health
    Microfiction
    Motivation
    Music
    MW Prequel
    Names
    Narrative Voice
    Nature / Gardening
    Networking
    Newcastle
    Nonfiction
    Nottingham
    Novels
    Pandemic
    Peak District
    Perfect Match
    Poetry
    Point Of View
    Politics
    Politics Current Affairs
    Presentation
    Privacy
    Prizes
    Psychoanalytic Theory
    Psychology
    Psycholoists Write
    Psychotherapy
    Race
    Racism
    Rants
    Reading
    Real Vs Imaginary
    Religion
    Repetitive Strain Injury
    Research
    Reviewing
    Romance
    Satire
    Second Novels
    Settings
    Sex
    Shakespeare
    Short Stories General
    Short Stories My Published
    Short Stories Others'
    Siblings
    Snowflake
    Somebody's Daughter
    Stolen Summers
    Storytelling
    Structure
    Sugar And Snails
    Technology
    The
    The Guestlist
    Therapy
    TikTok
    TNTB
    Toiletday
    Tourism
    Toxic Positivity
    Transfiction
    Translation
    Trauma
    Unconscious
    Unconscious, The
    Underneath
    Voice Recognition Software
    War
    WaSBihC
    Weather
    Work
    Writing Process
    Writing Technique

    Archives

    March 2023
    February 2023
    January 2023
    December 2022
    November 2022
    October 2022
    September 2022
    August 2022
    July 2022
    June 2022
    May 2022
    April 2022
    March 2022
    February 2022
    January 2022
    December 2021
    November 2021
    October 2021
    September 2021
    August 2021
    July 2021
    June 2021
    May 2021
    April 2021
    March 2021
    February 2021
    January 2021
    December 2020
    November 2020
    October 2020
    September 2020
    August 2020
    July 2020
    June 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015
    January 2015
    December 2014
    November 2014
    October 2014
    September 2014
    August 2014
    July 2014
    June 2014
    May 2014
    April 2014
    March 2014
    February 2014
    January 2014
    December 2013
    November 2013
    October 2013
    September 2013
    August 2013
    July 2013
    June 2013
    May 2013
    April 2013
    March 2013
    February 2013
    January 2013

    Picture
    BLOGGING COMMUNITIES
    Picture
    Picture
    Picture
    Picture
    Picture
    Picture
    Picture
    Picture
    Picture
    Picture
Powered by Create your own unique website with customizable templates.
Photos used under Creative Commons from havens.michael34, romana klee, mrsdkrebs, Kyle Taylor, Dream It. Do It., adam & lucy, dluders, Joybot, Hammer51012, jorgempf, Sherif Salama, eyspahn, raniel diaz, E. E. Piphanies, scaredofbabies, Nomadic Lass, paulternate, Tony Fischer Photography, archer10 (Dennis), slightly everything, impbox, jonwick04, country_boy_shane, dok1, Out.of.Focus, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service - Midwest Region, Elvert Barnes, guillenperez, Richard Perry, jamesnaruke, Juan Carlos Arniz Sanz, El Tuerto, kona99, maveric2003, !anaughty!, Patrick Denker, David Davies, hamilcar_south, idleformat, Dave Goodman, Sharon Mollerus, photosteve101, La Citta Vita, A Girl With Tea, striatic, carlosfpardo, Damork, Elvert Barnes, UNE Photos, jurvetson, quinn.anya, BChristensen93, Joelk75, ashesmonroe, albertogp123, >littleyiye<, mudgalbharat, Swami Stream, Dicemanic, lovelihood, anyjazz65, Tjeerd, albastrica mititica, jimmiehomeschoolmom