The Place for Truth in Fiction
and how to find more...
A few years back, I heard Zadie Smith on a podcast talking about how important it is to be truthful in novels. Despite writing fiction, she asks herself often if she is really telling the truth in her words. I heard Elizabeth Gilbert saying that despite her having written a memoir documenting a huge part of her life in fine detail (Eat, Pray, Love) that if you actually want to know who she is you should read her fiction. Both of these sharings have stayed with me. As a reader I have found truth, revelation and entirely new understandings about life in the pages of novels. I read to understand the world better, I read to understand myself better.
In a Q and A with Naimh Mulvey the author of Hearts and Bones, she said we must keep checking in with our work asking the following questions: Is it true? Is it beautiful? Does it need to exist?
As I delve into this rewrite/edit of my book that I thought was finished in 2021, those questions, scribbled on a yellow post-it note, are acting as a guiding light for me.
While there is so much to delve into with Niamh Mulvey’s questions, I want to focus on truth in our writing. How truthful are you being? How honest is your novel? Are your characters being truthful? Even if the story hangs around them not telling the truth, are they truthful in their deceit of others/themselves? Have you thought about these questions?
I work with a lot of memoirists and in the memoir space the conversation of truth is a big one. What even is the truth to start with and whose truth are you telling? Who has the right to tell what truth? Sometimes (oftentimes) I believe the truth we think is important in our lives is obscuring a more important truth that is hanging out more quietly in the shadows, hiding from view or just waiting to be seen.
This can be the same in fiction.
One way I have found helpful for finding these hidden truths, is a ‘look behind you’ technique.
Think of a beach at sunset. Everyone is focussed on the sun, the ball of light dropping down through the sky. Next time you have the joy of seeing a sunset, take a moment to look behind you. Watch what is happening behind your back, maybe the sun is setting the buildings ablaze with orange light, perhaps the moon is rising between two palms, see what is happening in the shadows, you might be surprised.
It’s the same, I think, with writing. Sometimes when we are staring a scene in the face, we can miss other more ‘real’ truths hiding in the background.
If the focus is on a couple arguing about who is doing more around the house, for example, we are in their words, in their facial expressions, in their miscommunications. We are staring deep into the conflict. If we scan out of the scene, what other truths might tell us more? A scared child watching on in secret, a pot plant they brought when they first moved in together that is wilting from lack of care, the bills on the fridge that haven’t been paid, the ovulation tracker sitting on the bedside table, the missed calls from her mother that she never answers? These are just a few ideas but I hope you see my point. Sometimes we think we are staring down the truth when we focus in, but if we look behind it or pan the camera out, we might find something even more real waiting to be seen.
So why not try it. Take an important scene in your book and ask what is standing in the shadows.
Do you have guiding principles for your work? Do you feel that your work is true and beautiful, that it needs to exist? What does your most enduring post-it note hanging in front of your desk say? I’d love to hear from you.
Meeting Your Characters off the Page
Thank you to all of you who signed up for a paid subscription to receive my monthly meditations/guided visualisations for writers (and more).
I feel incredibly excited about these meditation offerings. I hope they will open up a space for you to be guided by your intuition and by your characters, to make the writing experience even more fun, magical and inspired.
If you would like to check out a meditation before singing up, head to this link.
Here’s what one reader had to say ✨
“At the start I had a mental image of my protagonist ready to go and as he was about to hand me his favorite drink, my secondary main character (deuteragonist - I had to look that up, lol) stepped in and handed me her favorite drink. The rest of the time was spent with her! Mind blown!”
Have you tried the meditation? I’d love to know what you think!
Live Meditation Event
I will be running a live workshop with one of my meditations tomorrow, Wednesday 14th December, at the London Writers’ Salon. It is for Silver and above members only, but if you aren’t a member and you want to join, you can sign up for a month and enjoy all the other amazing offerings they have too.
Mentoring
I am already booking into the new year. 2023 feels enticing to me-despite my belief that years don’t really start until March. I’d love to work with you. If you feel called to dedicate your year to writing, if you’d like to get a project to the finish line, or if you’d like support in sowing the first seeds of a book you’ve always wanted to write, do get in touch.
Here is what a dear client had to say:
“Working hand in hand with Susannah has been one of the most transformative experiences of my life. She is an excellent mentor who helps you develop written skills and what is special about her guidance is that she helps you recognize your strengths, face your fears, and learn to express yourself through the emotions you feel in the process. I deeply appreciate her empathy, her sincerity, motivation and advice. You can trust that you are with the right person to guide you on the wonderful path of writing.” Jimena Sanchez, Mexico (translated from Spanish).
Recommendations
Podcast: This edition of the Secret library podcast with Danny Ramadan was chock full of tidbits, that I kept noting down. The ideas of the metaphor tree, the four stages of a writer and the advice from his writing mentor John to hold his draft ‘by the ankles, so all the change in the pockets falls out,’ are among the highlights.
Newsletter: For a little Winter cosiness,
talks in her Stray Attention Newsletter about taking time off, to ‘return to the trees.’ As a lover of trees I was enchanted by this Welsh expression that she shared and as an advocate of silence and rest in the creative life, I loved her telling of being 'gloriously unproductive.'Thank you for being here.
That meditation really did blow my mind, and opened up so much! Looking forward to more!
And the “look behind you” technique...another way to open up the worlds we create, and the one we live in. Thank you for this!