Truth is intended to represent fact and reality, to be precise and exact, and to be verifiable. Truth is supposedly only wedded to works of non-fiction, not to works of fiction.
The non-fiction writer collects, records, analyzes, and reports information that is based on factual evidence at the collecting, recording, analyzing and reporting phases. The information is verifiable at each of those times. He is not supposed to be bias or to let his personal perspective interfere with collecting, recording, analyzing and reporting the information. He is operating from a neutral distance. While others can challenge the certainty of the information, the challengers have a duty to support their counter claim.
Some challengers set out to contradict the alleged truthful information with alleged truthful information of their own. Others assert that truth changes with time and with availability of information. In other words, no one can amass all the information at any given point in time to proclaim truth.
And of course, the non-fiction writer has an obligation to prove his evidence.
The non-fiction writer attempts to explain something in words from the eyes, ears, smell, touch, and emotion of others. An example is describing a tennis match between two tennis players as it unfolds in front of you or as you heard it unfold while others were watching it who were not the tennis players. This is writing as a narrator.
It is different with stories of fiction. These are created stories that are made up and may or may not be based on a truth, but of itself is an invented story that may or may not contain verifiable truthful parts. While it is imaginary, a fantasy, a fabrication, an illusion it still may have portions that are factual and can be confirmed as such.
The fiction writer is immune to the predicament that faces the writer of non-fiction because he creates truth based on the information he decides to include within the document. The information is contained and not subject to additions, subtractions or alterations. For example, he thinks, "based on the information offered here, this is what happened." In other words, the fiction writer creates the premises he wishes to use to allow him to arrive at a specific logical conclusion. He places himself as the only expert and those who challenge the information are only challenging his interpretation of the premises. He puts himself in the action, feeling the emotion and offering the reader the emotion of actually playing the tennis match based on what the writer perceives is the appropriate emotion.
So, in my opinion both non-fiction and fiction documents can be true in their own way.
A recent professional experience may help shed light on my hypothesis.
Recently I agreed to write a non-fiction book based on information that allegedly was true. During the collecting, recording and analyzing phases of the project I interviewed several people, each of whom had parts of the story, but no single person had the full story. Some of the information offered by one person was contradicted by another person. Sometimes people changed what they had originally claimed to be real. In other words, not everyone agreed with one another and people changed their minds.
This led me to conduct secondary research that included but was not limited to Internet articles, published books and other people who could shed light on the topic. During the secondary research I was able to confirm as true some of the information previously given to me but I was not able to confirm all the information. In other words, some of these accounts were supported by the facts already known while other accounts had no such supportive facts. What was I to do?
This led me to settle on a point of view: today's understanding of the absolute truth about many things is essentially only partial in nature. Said another way I wonder about the reality of absolute truth in writing.
I don't believe that all "true stories" are actually true. I believe that most "true stories" are shaped in different ways often times by others' perceptions of alleged shared memories from a common past. There are few "absolute true stories." Stories that are based on true people, places, and events are for all intents and purposes stories "based on" true people, places, and events. They are written with a delicate balance between history and drama.
Don't get me wrong... writers shouldn't meddle with misrepresenting absolute truth, but as I've indicated earlier, in my opinion there are few instances of absolute truth in writing.
However, as writers, we can tinker with opportunities to be creative with information that is vague, imprecise, ambiguous, lacking, contradictory or unclear. Said another way, we are constantly interpreting information either consciously or unconsciously as we become aware of it. And as writers, that interpretation must be done in a way to reinforce the theme of the story.
Each of us as writers has to make up our own mind about truth in writing. As writers we should form our fundamental foundation of principles about truth. In the end our writing becomes a digest of our experiences, refined by time and revealed as our own unique writing signature. It is who we are and how we want others to know us.
The commonality of truth for both the non-fiction and fiction writer is to stay faithful and constant to the theme of the story and only write that which reinforces the theme.
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Antonio F. Vianna is a prime example of someone who has re-careered himself. In fact, you might say he wrote the book on it with "Career Management and Employee Portfolio Tool Kit, 3rd edition." He holds a M.M. from Northwestern University's Kellogg Graduate School of Management and a B.S. from Union College in Schenectady, New York. He has been able to re-brand himself from a former U.S. Air Force officer and Human Resources executive to an author and educator. His 19 novels, 2 prescriptive non-fiction works and 9 screenplays since 2003 along with three popular workshops, "Re-Careering at Any Age," "How to Write a Book and Get Published" and "How to Write a Screenplay" enjoy much success. Vianna is frequently a guest on television and radio discussing his works and his strategies for re-careering at any age. He is a member of Publishers & Writers of San Diego, Read Local San Diego, The Society for Human Resource Management and The Society for the Advancement of Management. He lives in Carlsbad, California. His books are available in paperback and electronically wherever books are sold. For more information about Antonio F. Vianna and his works, go to his website at http://www.viannabooks4u.com.
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