Why Authors Write Fiction
How and why does the author magically create this world of fiction? Primo Levi stated: "Fiction helps state the 'truthfulness' of the author's extreme experience." Writers often times will create a story based on what they already know about society; others offer a world they completely imagined in their mind and were able to transfer into print. But what steps might an author take or process do they follow in order to create this new world for readers?
Authors must keep in mind while creating their work that they must include the elements that define it as a narrative. Authors must decide which angle they are taking when shaping the plot and characters. The events that happen may be something the author has witnessed personally or has on excellent authority to know what happened in order to create the world within the story. Just as J.K. Rowling did with her Harry Potter Series, the story could be events the author knows will never happen because they are making them up as they go along. Depending on if they are focusing on a particular genre with their story, such as historical fiction, they have to be committed to incidental details, criteria such as time intervals, actions of the characters—if they are a real person and known by the audience—have to be authentic. The more accurate and believable your narrative, the more force and power your story gains within the real world amongst the people. You want the audience to ask, "Did this really happen?"
Writing What They Know and Understand
In essence, it is the author who dictates how much "reality" to include. However, when writers create based upon their own experiences, the narrative may seem more realistic and appealing to the audience. Carole Boyton, another fellow from New Haven, shared with us that author Stephen King was a teacher at her high school. After she read his first book Carrie, Carol was able to identify which classmates King modeled the various characters after in the book. King employed his background knowledge, experiences, and observations of that school setting to create a realistic, enchanting horror story. Zora Neale Hurston is another example of an author who wrote about what she knew. "She wrote about rural Southern black people because it was the world she knew best," exclaims Robert Hemenway in the introduction of her book Mules and Men. 7 Hurston was born and raised in Eatonville, Florida: the same location she used as one of the settings in her novel Their Eyes Were Watching God. Hurston used to hang around the town's general store to observe people's interactions, listen for local gossip and the folktales men would share. Much like Huston, Janie Crawford—our main character—would mimic these same actions revolving around the town's general store owned by her husband.
Using Stereotypes
When creating fiction, authors will often use the societal and cultural stereotypes. Stereotypes give the narrative more force because you are pulling in reality and "truth". Characters are drawn or created through stereotypes and freshened by unexpected combinations so that the stereotypic aspect of the character heightens audience response through recognition that comes from previous encounters with these characters and situations. Events in "All Summer in a Day" revolve around bullying—there is a victim and a bully present which are stereotypical characters in our own reality.
Role of Suspense
Similar to the usage of stereotypes, authors use the element of suspense within the plot to help create and maintain anticipation amongst their readers. Suspense is the state or condition of mental uncertainty or excitement due to the awaiting of a decision or outcome. Readers enjoy when the development of a storyline is unpredictable rather than following the same type of action sequence. For instance, Kathryn Stockett introduced in the beginning chapters and kept you in the dark about an incident Minny referred to as an 'unspeakable evil' that she performed as revenge against Mrs. Hilly for firing her. Throughout the remainder of the book, I eagerly wanted to find out what this unfathomable thing was. Stockett waited to reveal the incident until the last couple chapters of the book to keep her readers guessing. Believe me, I was in complete shock after finding out what Minny did (and wasn't planning on eating pie anytime soon).
Writers will outline and strategically place events in a specific order to keep the reader's attention and focus. Break points created by the author are subtly placed to maximize the reader's experience and audience anticipation. In conclusion, we know the writer has created a successful sequence of events within the fictional narrative if the reader continues to move forward with the book because a level of excitement and eagerness has been achieved. This excitement creates an anxiety and absorbs their thoughts until readers have managed to find the answers to their questions.
Manipulation of the Mind: Creating Empathy
I reflect upon what Sue Monk Kidd, the writer of The Secret Life of Bees, wrote: "While, as a writer, I want to affect the reader's mind-to educate and enlighten—what I wish for even more is to jolt the reader's heart. I want my words to open a portal through which the reader may leave the self, migrate to some other human sky and returned disposed of otherness." 8 Many authors hope for their readers to have an epic experience while reading their work of fiction. They want their audience to reach a state of empathy: the intellectual identification with or vicarious experiencing of the feelings, thoughts, or attitudes of another.
To achieve empathy, they present empathic connections between the characters or use thematic empathy to create a link to the reader. Most often, empathy will appear in the novel as a character trait or as a feature of relationships. Christopher Paul Curtis creates the empathetic connection using both character connection and theme in his novel The Watsons Go to Birmingham-1963. The story is told through ten-year old Kenny. According to Kenny, life is tough with a big brother who picks on you all the time and being known as the school egghead. We enjoy Kenny's humor when he discusses the sibling rivalry but can connect with him for being picked on at school for being the smart kid. This novel is also a historical fiction book; in later chapters, Kenny witnesses the bombing of the church that happened while he was visiting his grandmother. This book was meant to teach young children about the bombing of the church and the murder of four girls in Birmingham-1963. Using Kenny as his vehicle, Curtis is able to reach his audience to and educate about this tragedy that happened during the Civil Rights Movement.
Is it possible for everyone to achieve empathy? In reading the autobiography What is the What—written by Dave Eggers to help depict the life of Valentino Achak Deng—Deng shares his life experiences of being a Lost Boy in the current genocide happening in Sudan and Darfur; he is one of the young boys who were marched from his home in Sudan to Ethiopia. He describes the horrific conditions he had to endure in order to survive the march. Deng was one of the fortunate few to be resettled in the United States. Is it possible for everyone to empathize, especially when the circumstances are beyond what we can fathom since we have no experience with those types of conditions? Suzanne Keen performed a survey with collection of random people; she asked if a work of fiction has caused them to change their character or conduct. Keen presented Charles Dickens Oliver Twist as the example. Many people responded yes; they remember the strong feelings that developed, even if they acknowledged differences in the character s' situation from their own. Readers remember having strong feelings for Oliver; even though they were not orphaned personally, they empathized with him when he longed for a place to belong. This proves a reader doesn't have to directly identify with the character or situation to experience a strong, empathetic reaction. She presented this question: can you think of any time where a novel made you do something specific in the world something you might not have done or thought of if you hadn't read the novel?
For authors of fiction, it is not simply for the pay check they receive for completing and turning in their manuscript; seeing that enlightening sparkle within their readers' eyes and knowing they have touched and impacted their minds, even if for a short while, brings a higher form of self-satisfaction. The manipulation of the mind and the thoughts of the reader evokes emotions about the content that allure the reader; in return there is self-gratification in seeing the readers' eyes sparkle. You have the best of both worlds: as the author you can connect with readers, shape their minds and expand their intellects, and yet satisfy their desire for a connection
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