What Fiction Is and Isn't

Written on 10:02 PM by Jack B.

Fiction is NOT real life (or at least it shouldn't be). Fiction can be happier, funnier or tragic than real life but it should not mirror real life. Real life is boring. We LIVE real life we shouldn’t have to waste time and money reading or watching (in the case of film) people doing the same thing as do. If I wanted reality, I wouldn’t need a book or film or TV for it.

At its best fiction is an alternate version of reality. The reader can assume that the things on the page MIGHT happen if X, Y or Z was true and all the planets were in place but to think that it actually is happening can be boring. Exceptions can me made of course in exceptional situations like war or natural disasters where characters are stuck in situations the reader usually is not. In that case the background itself is inherently interesting (as opposed to most of our hum-drum existence).