I love stories from books, movies, TV shows, and even from my imagination. I cherish the characters, settings, plot, imagery, phrasing, and all else there is to appreciate. Yet when I get attached to a story, I am often told I shouldn’t be obsessed with it because stories have nothing to do with real life.
In a previous post, “What Makes Our Reality Greater Than Imagination,” I wrote how real life is better than any fictional story. What I would like to state now is while fiction is not better than life, fiction is another lens through which we can see life.
Another Lens
I believe that fiction is another lens through which we can see reality. Yes, fiction is not real life, but it reflects life. Fiction is another lens through which we can see reality. Fiction is a lens we put on reality to discover deeper truths about people and the world.
Situations
Some will argue against this view. What does magic have to do with our world? Aren’t stories just a dramatic fantasy of the author’s imagination?
Yes, the story comes from the author’s imagination, but the story is drawn from real life.
As in “What Makes Our Reality Greater Than Imagination,” I make a point that we cannot imagine anything greater than reality. This means that all stories are linked to something in real life.
The situations in fictional stories may not be a part of your life. You may not be fighting a dark lord, being tortured, being chased by gunmen, a victim of some accident, or having a blissful romance.
But there are people living in fear from tyrants, people being murdered, victims of accidents and illnesses, and those with romantic and abusive relationships.
Stories can seem unrealistic, but they are drawn from real life.
Characters
Like situations in stories being based on life, the characters in stories are based upon real people.
A good writer draws inspiration for their characters from humans. Human personality traits, emotions, speech, mental state, and more are what we put in characters to make them relatable.
Characters experience the same emotions and fears you do. They reflect your traits and flaws, and sometimes they reveal your own faults to you.
When you find a quirk, feeling, or situation you share with a character, you find comfort in knowing you are not the only person who has experienced it. For although the character is fictional, the author who created them is not.
Another invaluable aspect of fictional characters is the understanding and knowledge you glean from them that help you understand other people better.
Since characters are based on people, the more characters you read about, the more you understand about other people.
You may not have experienced what a character is going through, but when you come across a person who is in their position, you can understand them better and have more compassion for them.
Themes
Authors usually have a theme they share through their story concerning life.
Themes can be pointing to a flaw in our society we need to fix or a truth we need to apply in our lives. It can stress something important like the value of love or the evil of revenge.
Whatever the theme is, it is something the author believes applies to real life. And whether the theme is true or not, it is a reflection on the author’s worldview.
The Author
Even if the story is shallow or its philosophy is wrong, the story still tells us something about the world: how the author and their likeminded people view life.
How the author portrays the world shows how other individuals view it as well. There is a whole other worldview to consider and study in stories. Why does the author think this way? Why do they write like this? How would I try to convince them to believe in my worldview?
Lens
Fiction takes real life, puts it in a fictional situation, and lets it run. Yes, fiction is not real life, but fiction shows life through another lens. We can learn about life, people, and other world-views through fiction.
Fiction should not be thrown aside as trivial, a waist of time, or not connected to real life. In reality, fiction reveals life in a new light.
Photo Credit: MrBlueSky* Flickr via Compfight cc
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S.J. Siedenburg is a thriller & fantasy novelist, an editor, and a bibliophile with a passion for stories and helping writers finish their novels. She’s the author of the guidebooks Character Presentation, Before the First Draft, and the How to Write a Novel online course. Six of her short stories have been published through writing contests. Sarah lives in the Pacific Northwest with her husband and their Cavalier King Charles Spaniel.
“The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.” —John 1:5