I Can't Make This Stuff Up
I think I gave up the idea of being a journalist over this little thing called fact-checking. Basically, I am lazy. I also didn't like having to ask just the right question to get just the right quote from a taciturn source. So now I get to MAKE UP dialogue and insert whatever I want into my characters' mouths. It's a lot easier. Yes, my entire career choice has been dominated by the idea that I prefer to sit around in my pjs and make stuff up for a living.
Except . . .
Yesterday I walked into my family room. My parents are visiting. And Grandma taught two-year-old baby to call a certain political figure a "STINKIN' FACIST." And Baby says it perfectly. So now, political figure steps up to podium, and Baby points at the TV and says, "He's a stinkin' facist."
No. I am not lying. I am not making it up.
Now, the funny thing, I suppose, is since I happen to agree with my mother's politics, I don't particularly mind. I had taught him the word "neofacist." Mom just upped the ante. My father said he wanted to teach Baby to say "stinkin' f*cking facist." He was stopped. However, I presume on my child's vocabulary journey, that's just a stepping stone away around his grandfather.
But here's the thing. At some point, I will use this in a book. Maybe it's because my family is eccentric. Maybe because my sense of humor leaves me laughing about this and not aghast. But I'm going to use it. I don't know when. But it will happen. It might be five books from now, but it's definitely usable material.
And so, I have decided, being a novelist is very much a matter of making stuff up for a living. But it's also about going through life looking for material. Much like a stand-up comic, I suppose. And then figuring out a way to use it.
So . . . is that how you, as a writer, go through your life? I know there are some fantasy writers who post here regularly. I wonder if they still use real-life stuff or it's all completely made up. Thriller writers . . . see somthing on the news and decide to use it? What is the process?
Because for me . . . I make most of it up. But . . . well, I guess not really, afterall.
Except . . .
Yesterday I walked into my family room. My parents are visiting. And Grandma taught two-year-old baby to call a certain political figure a "STINKIN' FACIST." And Baby says it perfectly. So now, political figure steps up to podium, and Baby points at the TV and says, "He's a stinkin' facist."
No. I am not lying. I am not making it up.
Now, the funny thing, I suppose, is since I happen to agree with my mother's politics, I don't particularly mind. I had taught him the word "neofacist." Mom just upped the ante. My father said he wanted to teach Baby to say "stinkin' f*cking facist." He was stopped. However, I presume on my child's vocabulary journey, that's just a stepping stone away around his grandfather.
But here's the thing. At some point, I will use this in a book. Maybe it's because my family is eccentric. Maybe because my sense of humor leaves me laughing about this and not aghast. But I'm going to use it. I don't know when. But it will happen. It might be five books from now, but it's definitely usable material.
And so, I have decided, being a novelist is very much a matter of making stuff up for a living. But it's also about going through life looking for material. Much like a stand-up comic, I suppose. And then figuring out a way to use it.
So . . . is that how you, as a writer, go through your life? I know there are some fantasy writers who post here regularly. I wonder if they still use real-life stuff or it's all completely made up. Thriller writers . . . see somthing on the news and decide to use it? What is the process?
Because for me . . . I make most of it up. But . . . well, I guess not really, afterall.
Labels: comedy material, writing process
posted by Erica Orloff at 8:35 AM
10 Comments:
Hahahaha on your two year old. It reminds me of my daughter when at 18 months she stood up in her cot and said 'for f*cks sake' - it kept me amused for years!!
I steal from real life liberally. "Back in the salad again" ring a bell? ;)
And you're teaching your child wrong, Erica. It should be you cretinous idiot. I think a certain political figure isn't clever enough to be an actual fascist. :)
sara:
LO!! My oldest used the f-word as a baby, but now we are more csreful--hence . . . well . . . I don't know if this is better at all.
E
Jude:
Thank you for the guidance. LOL!
E
I'm just finishing up Jack in the Box, by John Weisman. He drops so many real facts, it's amazing! There are footnotes everywhere.
It's actually pretty fascinating. As thrillers go, I've been studying how authors balance the real, the could-happen-soon, and the fictional. I don't know how they do it!
Oh yes, I'm constantly noticing little (or not so little) situations that would write up well. Sometimes I even jot them down in a little notebook because I don't trust my memory. I recently went to see a few punk bands perform on a local college campus. Research for the current ms. Anyway, the place was rife with stories. I ended up practically filling my notebook. The next day, I was telling someone about the experience, and she asked me how I managed to fit in. Fit in??? Who thinks about fitting when you're picking up stories??? Ack. Sorry for the ramble.
I use a lot of religious and psychological theory in my urban fantasy series. However, because I don't want to date it, I avoid current political references. It probably doesn't help that I'm politically clueless...
spy:
There was a thriller called Just Killing Time by a journalist5 turned novelist (I believe his first and only novel). He included so much information about serial killers that I read it 13 years ago (roughly) and the facts still stick in my brain and scare the h*ll out of me!
E
barrie:
I agree. If you are a student of life itself, it doesn't feel like research.
E
naomi:
Great point. I've avoided a lot of that in my novels--I will have religious references. But not political leaders unless they are made-up characters, like the Senator I had in Invisible Girl.
E
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