Some stories are like a pregnancy, they swell and cause fatigue, increase in irritation, and hunger after strange tastes then they refuse to come out. They struggle inside you like foetus – kicking and punching but when you try to bring them out, you push and cry, sweat and grimace and then they come out slow. When they do though, they are worth everything. You forget the pain and the sweat. You are glad that they are finally here. No matter how imperfect they may be, you love them.
Trying to put words to emotions and the nuances of a meeting between two characters can be difficult especially when you are constructing from memory. The curse of memory is exactitude. You, who tell the story, will attempt the impossible – to put down on paper the exact representation of what you remember to be the true events. You find that you cannot allow yourself to deviate from the truth as shown to you by your mind. You feel as if, if you change a certain turn of phrase, a certain twitch of the eyelids, a certain atmosphere around the scene, you will lose the moment of the story, the efficacy of the truth.
For those who create fantasy and fictitious legends of men and women, their case is no different although they have certain leeway. It is not memory that really holds them to task in their case rather it is their imagination. The human imagination is a great tool. It is the means by which man has achieved greatness but it is still bound by earthly rules. We cannot imagine what we have not seen. We cannot create out of nothing, is a better phrase. The creator must have a basis, a foundation from which his or her creation flows from. With this in mind, a story that is imagined will still have a certain basis in reality no matter how fantastic it may seem. Whether through the myths and legends of a people, rumours, tales by moonlight, drug induced inspirations, a creator will find source material in this reality. This is why elves walk on two legs, have two ears, two hands, one nose and hair on their head. It is why witches fly on brooms and why ghosts wear clothes. The human mind cannot imagine what it has no sense of.
When a writer therefore puts words together in the bid to tell a story, he or she seeks to recreate life in a form that he or she finds more comfortable. He or she therefore has to find life like qualities to imbue the setting, the scene, the characters – he or she has to make the story believable. If he or she does not do this, the reader will know that the story is not true.
In writing, there is a difference between truth and verisimilitude. For in truth, a work of nonfiction is never fully true. In places, the writer has allowed his or her own emotionally coloured version of events to sip through into the writing. Besides can we really trust the human memory? In fiction, the writer lies blatantly because none of what he or she writes about actually happened but because of verisimilitude, the writer is able to convey a feeling of realism – a feeling that the events in their story is quite possible in the real world.
When a writer can pour some sense of realism into his or her writing, convincing the reader as to the truth of the story then he or she has been able to recreate life. This is the height of writing – the ability to deceive one into believing that a piece of fiction is possible. Readers have pondered Okonkwo’s motivations in Things Fall Apart for years, seeking to understand him. He has evolved from a character in a novel to a flesh and blood living man. The same can be said for Sherlock Holmes, as a character. The writer is a true con artist if he or she has been able to convince their reader that what they find in the story is indeed possible or might have happened in the real world. This can be achieved through the manipulation of emotions and atmosphere, setting and dialogue. To do this, the writer has to delve into the material all around – the everyday conversations of people he or she hears, the physical characteristics of things and people, the tone and inflection of voices, the play of emotions on faces. All of these, if utilized often lead to the creation of a realistic world inside the pages of a book.
In essence, a writer seeking to achieve the goal of defrauding his or her reader’s minds must be a psychologist. He or she must understand how people think and how they react to issues. He or she must be semantically aware – capable of deciphering the meaning behind gestures and words. He or she must be able to detach himself or herself from emotions and analyze them seeking to understand them and use them. A writer must understand the world and he or she must start with their self.
Knowing of the self does not necessarily mean finding a solution to all of the different failings that one has. It is more about knowing and accepting the imperfections as what it is – being human. It is understanding not just the problem but the cause and the process of its entry and gradual spread. This sort of psychological understanding gives to the writer the tool that enables him or her write a character that is as believable, as real as you and me.
A writer must know how to lie and excel at it for the story to be worth reading. At the same time, he or she must participate in the story. He or she cannot detach their self and stand aside. It is often not surprising then, the difficulty that some writers face in bringing their work to completion. Some have lost themselves inside the story and cannot find their way back. Some have found something of themselves that they wish they had never found. Some have become afraid of what their words might birth in the minds of their readers and some are simply uncomfortable with telling their stories. For telling stories, is like giving birth. It is hard and painful and mostly a costly thing.
PS: I don't think I fully understand what I have written here. It is a jumbled expression of thoughts flowing from one point to the other and back. I hope it makes some sense to you though. I am sleepy. Good night.
©warpedpoetic, 2019.