The Truth of Fiction
Sunny Frazier has been publishing both fiction and nonfiction since 1972. She is a Navy veteran, earned a BA in Journalism, and wrote for a newspaper before joining the Fresno County Sheriff’s Department. During her 17 year career in law enforcement, 11 of them were spent working with an undercover narcotics team.
Frazier is also an amateur astrologer. She has been involved in astrology for 40 years.
Her short mystery fiction has won over 30 awards and trophies, as well as publication in mystery magazines and law enforcement magazines. Her first novel in the Christy Bristol Astrology Mysteries, Fools Rush In, received the Best Novel Award from Public Safety Writers Association. Where Angels Fear came out in April, 2009.
Frazier is a member of the Central Coast Chapter of Sisters in Crime, as well as the Public Safety Writers Association. She currently resides in Lemoore, CA.
When I worked for the Sheriff’s Department in Fresno, I created a saying and put it on a rolling banner as a screen saver: “A Writer Reinvents the Truth.”
This was never more accurate than when I wrote my first book, Fools Rush In. I took the first case I worked as a secretary for an undercover narcotics team and fictionalized it to include a kidnapping, two murders and a budding romance.
I was invited to speak to a book club three hours away on the Pacific coast. Summer means 100+ degree weather for days on end in the Central Valley of California. Any excuse for a trip to the coast is a good one.
What was different about this event was that the detective I wrote about, “Wolfe” in my book, came with me. His mother was hosting the event at her house. She wanted her friends to meet her son just to prove he wasn’t the cad I made him out to be in the novel.
Thirty-two women filled the living room, everyone anxious to meet “the author.” An 11” X 14” black and white photo of “Wolfe” greeted them at the front door. It was from his undercover days, and he bore a striking resemblance to Charlie Manson.
The detective surprised me by compiling a photo album of all the characters in my book. Everything I’d written about, from the members of the meth gang to the heroin hype kit that nearly killed my heroine, was there for show-and-tell.
The ladies had read the book and quoted from passages I barely remembered. They used the fictional names of the characters while asking the detective questions. It was a little confusing for him, but he’d read the book as well. It had jogged his memory of details of the 1991 case. I was amazed by how much of the story I had retained while writing the book and how close my descriptions were of the drug dealer’s compound. Seeing the photos brought back those memories.
Fictionalizing true events requires a writer to pick details that will make the story “real” to the reader, but it also means leaving details out. Truth may be stranger than fiction, but it can lose readers. The drug dealer I wrote about believed he was the reincarnation of the god Thor. There was no way that piece of trivia would show up in my novel!
The relationship between “Wolfe” and Christy was NOT the status of the detective and myself. My writing group insisted on a romantic relationship gone sour, so that’s what I wrote. The storyline and tension became stronger. I’m not sure how the detective’s wife felt about it, but we assured her it was fiction.
When life gives writers great material, it’s important to deliver a novel that is entertaining but also opens up the reader’s world. The characters have to come alive, the dialog has to ring true. But, unlike reality, it is the writer’s job to elevate the story to more than just a re-telling of events. Fictionalization means bringing in the author’s unique and subjective viewpoint, a landscape of words to help readers find truth in their own lives.
April 27, 2010
Posted in: Guest Blogs
Loading ...
9 Responses
In some ways I think it’s actually harder to write a book with some grounding in reality than being able to take flight in absolute fancy (although you’re right, even the best imagination probably wouldn’t come up with Thor the drug dealer incarnate
I love your description of showing up at that house and seeing just how real your characters and their story world became to your readers…
well said. Cute story about going to Mom’s house and so true about making your characters real and grounded.
Love your approach to discussing the book. Talk about suspending disbelief! Working with the truth can be difficult but you’ve pulled it off!
Thank you, ladies!
I cringe when beginning writers say, “What I wrote is true, it happened to me!” Well, yeah, but that doesn’t make it INTERESTING. Finding the story within the anecdote is crucial. That’s what makes a good storyteller–not just someone telling a good story.
Nicely put, Sunny. Your posts always make me think even when I’m mostly nodding my head in agreement. I think I needed to read this right now. I’ve been mulling over an idea for a short story that has some roots in real life and feeling a bit hesitant about starting it. Your post has inspired me to go for it. So, thanks!
T.L., I think that’s what is so cool about blogging. If some little insight worked into the telling of my own experiences helps another writer to springboard to their own discoveries, then my time (and words) are well spent. Write brave and remember that the best stories tell the truth about ourselves.
Looting from life can be a lucrative. I think it’s great that you show how to take something real and by utilizing your talent turn it into something readable. Most people think you have to live a dramatic life in order to have material for a fiction but the truth is, there are stories all around us, you just have to know how to dress them up to make them worthy of a book.
Sunny is awesome! When I get into her book I just can’t put it down. Then I wish there were more so I am always looking for another book by Sunny.
My thanks to everyone for dropping by—Sunny will be back on June 8th so please come back to see her!
Sunny, thank you for being such a delightful guest
Leave a Reply