Setting for a work of fiction or nonfiction requires careful
attention to the specifics of “PLACE and TIME,” if the work is to establish
credibility and connect with readers. I
wrote about this in several recent posts and I continue to think about it.
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| HARBORSCAPE_ Leaving Dublin - May 2012 - Jan Bowman |
Eudora Welty wrote two useful essays on both Time and Place
in her book, The Eye of the Story.
Welty said that, “Being shown how to locate, to place, any account is what does most toward making us believe
it, not merely allowing us to,
whether the account be the facts or a lie; and that is where place in fiction
comes in. Fiction is a lie.” But if fiction is an imaginary untruth,
nonfiction is not altogether the truth.
Nonfiction describes truths, but these are filtered through
an opaque glass of inexact memory that tends to distort. For example, if my
sister and I describe the same childhood events, we both believe we give truth,
but our focus, our memory, our perspective is different. But ironically, fiction carries the deepest
human truths under the surface, and nonfiction’s truth is fractured below the
surface by the narrator’s memory reconstruction. Welty says, “Fiction is a lie. BUT never in
inside thoughts, but always on its outside dress.” Which is to say that while fiction is
imagined, the reality and truth that holds the reader in belief, is a reality
that establishes a ‘place’ for the reader to stand and connect to events.
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| CITYSCAPE - Leaving NYC - May 2012 - Jan Bowman |
Writers must give readers a place to stand
early in fiction and nonfiction. It is
an essential component in the writing process. Having said this as background, I have read several
unpublished stories recently for a writing class, and one of the ongoing
problems with these otherwise strong stories lies in the slippery beginning.
The sense of a story closes out the reader, when the visibility of place is only partial
or intermittent, and it unnecessarily challenges the reader before the reader
is fully engaged. That’s a good way to lose your reader. And if your reader is an editor that you hope
will publish your work, you will not likely get them to page three where the
reader will finally “figure it out.”
Welty said that “…fiction depends for its life on place.
Location is the crossroads of circumstance, the proving ground of ‘What
happened? Who’s here? Who’s coming?’ and that is the heart’s field.”
Jan Bowman’s work has
appeared in Roanoke Review, Big Muddy,
Broadkill Review, Trajectory, Third Wednesday, Minimus, Buffalo Spree (97), Folio, The Potomac Review, Musings, Potato
Eyes, and others. She won the 2012
Roanoke Review Prize for Fiction. Her
stories have been nominated for a Pushcart Prize, Best American Short Stories
and a story was a finalist in the “So To
Speak” Fiction Contest. She is working on two
collections of short stories and currently shopping for a publisher for a
completed story collection. She has nonfiction work pending publication in Spring
2013 Issues of Trajectory and Pen-in-Hand. She writes a weekly blog of
“Reflections” on the writing life and posts regular interviews with writers and
publishers. Learn more at:
Website – www.janbowmanwriter.com
Blogsite – http://janbowmanwriter.blogspot.com
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