April 25, 2016
Prose Workshop: Facts in Fiction and Non-Fiction with Helen Hagemann @ the Fremantle Arts Centre, Friday, 29th April 1pm-3pm.
This workshop will look at the ways to include "facts" in your fiction or non-fiction. The
class will read excerpts on various points of view by Melissa Donovan, Emma Darwin, Roy Clark and Geoff Dyer of the Guardian. Writers will be able to apply these ideas in 2-3 writing exercises. Venue: Fremantle Arts Centre, Room 2, Time: 1-3pm
Cost: OOTA $20 - NON-OOTA $25 (ask for membership form to save).
Including Facts in Fiction and Non-Fiction
Fiction is neither real nor unreal but a world existing between places of factual certainty and the avenues of an author’s imagination.
The first thing you need to know about writing fiction, whatever the genre, is that you must get your facts right. Those titbits of information lend fiction its authenticity, so it’s essential that you do them justice. A reader will only believe a lie for as long as it holds some truth, and those truths have to be accurate.
But how do you do it? How do you take the everyday and draw a new existence from it? How do you write fiction based on facts?
You need two tools at your command before you begin: experience (personal, professional, or both) and the ability to research.
Armed with these, you can then pick any number of methods from the following list to make your fiction come alive in a reader’s hands.
