tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9156334464585894857.post7600265663647949585..comments2023-10-25T05:30:54.507-04:00Comments on Oh Get A Grip!: Did that really happen?Ashe Barkerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03390519279886657608noreply@blogger.comBlogger13125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9156334464585894857.post-75231769270562342192015-06-04T12:23:28.371-04:002015-06-04T12:23:28.371-04:00This is a really interesting issue. I worry a lot ...This is a really interesting issue. I worry a lot about the other direction—truth that works its way into fiction. I don't want to violate anyone's privacy, so I'm really wary of lovers appearing in my stories. And yet my mind seems to obsess on certain things that do have their roots in truth. Sometimes, I feel like I should come with a warning label... I know some writers embrace that proudly, but I tend to feel nervous about it.Annabeth Leonghttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07455191827664110878noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9156334464585894857.post-57244830970299908432015-05-30T00:02:38.564-04:002015-05-30T00:02:38.564-04:00I recommend "Entangled Lives", memoirs o...I recommend "Entangled Lives", memoirs of seven authors edited by Marilyn Jaye Lewis. <br /><br /><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Entangled-Lives-Memoirs-Erotica-Writers/dp/1555839983" rel="nofollow">http://www.amazon.com/Entangled-Lives-Memoirs-Erotica-Writers/dp/1555839983</a><br /><br />You can tell these tales are true (to the extent that the writers can make them so). <br /><br />In contrast, Alison Tyler's "Dark Secret Love" feels real, but embroidered. (Still very good, though.)<br /><br />Lisabet Saraihttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05162514190572269660noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9156334464585894857.post-76159891528800610442015-05-29T13:00:27.938-04:002015-05-29T13:00:27.938-04:00Hah!Hah!Daddy Xhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12927663248424944119noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9156334464585894857.post-6122272673114286982015-05-29T11:09:30.917-04:002015-05-29T11:09:30.917-04:00I mind when writers say things are true when they ...<i>I mind when writers say things are true when they aren't, but I suppose I can only mind that if I know it.</i><br /><br />I manage to mind it even if I don't know it: that is, I know that the writer may well be lying when saying something is true, and I resent having to keep that possibility in mind and hold back from believing in it.Jeremy Edwardshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01980177431018869829noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9156334464585894857.post-83801676086852214452015-05-29T10:16:16.677-04:002015-05-29T10:16:16.677-04:00I mind when writers say things are true when they ...I mind when writers say things are true when they aren't, but I suppose I can only mind that if I know it. When I edited a book of "True sex stories," I generally had fairy good reasons to believe that the writers could be telling the truth--some of them I knew a goo deal about, some voluntary offered corroborating information, and in one case, with a story I wasn't planning to use because I couldn't believe it, I found out that a staff member in my publisher's office had actually herd about that wild party, which had taken place in the Bsy Area,<br /><br />With my own writing, I'd just as soon readers didn't know what parts get all too close to the truth. Sacchi Greenhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10801164916418570059noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9156334464585894857.post-1659150898756055532015-05-28T23:47:04.709-04:002015-05-28T23:47:04.709-04:00Haha, see that's why I hardly ever write HEA.Haha, see that's why I hardly ever write HEA. Giselle Renardehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15955755448116234634noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9156334464585894857.post-80977534910673016322015-05-28T18:40:10.970-04:002015-05-28T18:40:10.970-04:00Quite a few of my stories are truth based, built a...Quite a few of my stories are truth based, built around situations I've been involved in during my life - excluding the vampires of course. The problem is most of what happened didn't end up happily, so I had to blur the truth for HEA. Oh well.JPhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10305127219838784688noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9156334464585894857.post-15905311814076755072015-05-28T11:20:45.738-04:002015-05-28T11:20:45.738-04:00My sister recently told me about being approached ...My sister recently told me about being approached by a man with a hard-luck story. She was with my mom at the time. My mom believed every word he said. My sister didn't believe anything. When the man asked them for change, my mother and my sister both gave him some. My mom was eager to help him out. My sister was paying him for a good story. Giselle Renardehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15955755448116234634noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9156334464585894857.post-486459064069125782015-05-28T11:15:22.510-04:002015-05-28T11:15:22.510-04:00I'm the same way. There are so many based-on-l...I'm the same way. There are so many based-on-life stories I've written that I honestly don't remember what really happened. And as I get lazier in life, I tend to write about things instead of doing them.Giselle Renardehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15955755448116234634noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9156334464585894857.post-62202076125542484302015-05-28T11:09:09.211-04:002015-05-28T11:09:09.211-04:00I think I'm just so jaded and mistrustful (is ...I think I'm just so jaded and mistrustful (is that a word?) that I don't truly believe anything. Probably comes from being raised by a manipulative father who lied to everybody all the time. Oh, and my mother covered up for his drinking by lying, too. I didn't stand a chance. Giselle Renardehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15955755448116234634noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9156334464585894857.post-66491799754719518472015-05-28T10:29:48.144-04:002015-05-28T10:29:48.144-04:00Agree with Jeremy in that a true story has a parti...Agree with Jeremy in that a true story has a particular appeal, knowing the act or acts have actually happened to someone, even considering poetic license. One problem with true stories is that they seldom have final resolution because life goes on. Goes on with the experience behind us but influencing the future just the same.<br /><br /><br />I recently proposed a theme of 'Truthiness' to the other ERWA editors. We'll see what develops with that.Daddy Xhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12927663248424944119noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9156334464585894857.post-76296173804821474982015-05-28T09:58:09.000-04:002015-05-28T09:58:09.000-04:00One of my DH's favorite sayings is "There...One of my DH's favorite sayings is "There is no reality". The older I get, the more correct this seems. Not to mention the more I write. <br /><br />Just the other day I was talking with him about the Dakota, the legendary building where John Lennon was murdered and <i>Rosemary's Baby</i> was set.. And I was about to say, "Oh, yes, I've been inside..." when I realized I had not, in fact, ever set foot in the place. I'd written a novella with a scene set in the Dakota, and imagined it so vividly that for a moment, I believed I'd actually ventured inside that iconic place.. <br /><br />The same thing occurs with sexual experience. I've written dozens of scenes based to a greater or lesser degree on my relationship with my master. Now the fictional has become so tightly entwined with the historical that I get confused. <b>Did</b> he ever cane me? Or feel me up in a hardware store? Or spank me until I'd come? <br /><br />Sometimes I have to think hard to answer. And I'm sure that I have dozens of memories that flow not from what "really" happened, but from fantasy.<br />Lisabet Saraihttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05162514190572269660noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9156334464585894857.post-5569425900281158852015-05-28T08:27:25.045-04:002015-05-28T08:27:25.045-04:00Personally, I think the distinction between truth ...Personally, I think the distinction between truth and fiction is extremely important, and it troubles me when fictitious events or narratives are deliberately represented as true ones. This is more than simply an artistic issue for me: I am very concerned about people believing things that are false, because I think this can have all sorts of negative consequences. So fiction, obviously, is fine. Narratives that avowedly blend fact and fiction are fine—like what it sounds like you're doing, Giselle, "some of this really happened and some didn't, and I'm not going to say which is which." What is not fine, to me, is "this is a true story" when it isn't. (And, yes, I realize of course that someone can innocently misremember or misunderstand events as "true" in a way that they aren't exactly—which is why we look for corroboration and evidence for the most important stories—but I'm not talking about the vagaries of memory and interpretation. I'm talking about willful deception.) To those who might say "What difference does it make?" one thing I would point out is that people who deliberately peddle fiction as truth do so presumably <i>because</i> it will make a difference in how much attention and importance their stories are granted.<br /><br />Even for pure entertainment purposes, I like knowing whether I'm enjoying a true tale or an invented one. My appreciation for a funny anecdote or quip has a different flavor and intensity when I believe it's an account of a real incident rather than something someone made up. Funny things are often funnier to me if they really happened, because there's that "wow" factor; and a funny quip that a wit spouted spontaneously in real life and in real time is more impressive than one contrived at the writing desk. Jeremy Edwardshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01980177431018869829noreply@blogger.com