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Real life doesn't make sense (so fiction has to)

"Fiction is a way to tell the truth through memorable lies."

Here's quote from the book Elements of Fiction Writing: Scene and Structure:

“…fiction must make more sense than real life if general readers are to find it credible. So, for example, in real life someone may fall ill for no apparent reason and with no evident cause. In fiction, the character would have to be seen depressed about recent developments and tired from overwork.”

Since reading this quote referenced in Nat Eliason's essay "What Would Happen to You in a Book?", it's come back to me again and again over the past month:

  • My fiction writing brain thinks: fiction must make sense, even though real life doesn't. Note taken for my own writing.

  • My armchair philosopher brain thinks: maybe fiction must make sense because real life doesn't. Oo, let's unpack this...

I'm always looking for patterns in life. I want to make sense of what's happening to me. I want some assurance that the pain I go through has meaning. And every so often, I just need a break from real life.

This is why fiction is crucial to our culture and our society. 

Dreaming about a day when we open our window to an owl with our Hogwarts acceptance letter clutched in its beak, helps us make sense of, give meaning to, and add a dash of profundity to the mundane.

Seeing Charlize Theron’ Furiosa topple the patriarchal society she lives in against heart-wrenching setbacks makes difficult truths more palatable and a better future seem more achievable.

Watching Tony Stark/Ironman vanquish Thanos with the same snap the Deviant used to destroy half the world's population helps us get out of bed, knowing that no matter how difficult life gets, at least we're not an Avenger.

Fiction is a way to tell the truth through memorable lies. As legendary novelist Neil Gaiman writes in  Art Matters — a call to arms for artists, writers, and creators —

“Fiction is the lie that tells the truth. We all have an obligation to daydream. We have an obligation to imagine. It is easy to pretend that nobody can change anything, that society is huge and the individual is less than nothing. But the truth is individuals make the future, and they do it by imagining that things can be different.”