HONORING THE

NONFICTION
CONTRACT
 HONORING THE NONFICTION CONTRACT

 Part of the challenge for writers is the distinction between

writing fictional and factual works. Fiction is written using
imagined situations, but fictional stories may also spring
from real events and involve real people. When writers
present factual stories, told as non-fiction they must stay,
wholly, in the realm of reality. There is a fine line between the
two, explored here.
 THE NON-FICTION CONTRACT

 Thisis a basic agreement between the writer and the reader that
that writer shall present the facts without fictionalizing any part of
their story. They may interpret, bring their own experience to
bear, in telling the story, but they must keep the story grounded.
For their part, the reader will open their mind to what the writer is
saying.
 SETTING THE SCENE

 Fictionand non-fiction both rely on a writer’s ability to set the scene. Part
of this may be available from historical records, facts about the place
where the event happened, what it looked like, the people present,
etc. Documentation for the non-fiction writer must be factual and confined
to whatever can be identified through research, nothing more, nothing
less. There is a fine line between fact and interpretation.
 A MATTER OF PERSPECTIVE

 Any two people may have entirely different perspectives, in part

based on nationality, religion, education, etc. The reader’s
perspective will mean that facts can be viewed differently. For
example: in the USA, the American Revolutionary War is a great
revolutionary war which brought about the birth of a new nation. In
Britain, the conflict called the American War of Independence is
one of the darkest hours of the great empire and there is nothing
revolutionary about it. Each side has a different perspective.
 ETHICAL ISSUES

 History is littered with examples of writers who stepped over that

boundary, journalists who fictionalized a factual story, then
published it. They invent ‘facts’ to make their story more
interesting, but it is wrong. The challenge for writers is to stay the
right side of the line. The writer’s duty is to bring their characters
to life but do so without breaking the non-fiction contract. They
can use their experiences to tell the story, yet be narrative in their
words.
 A MILLION LITTLE PIECES

 is a book by James Frey, originally sold as a memoir and later

marketed as a semi-fictional novel following accusations of literary
forgery. It tells the story of a 23-year-old alcoholic and abuser of
other drugs and how he copes with rehabilitation in a twelve steps-
oriented treatment center. While initially promoted as a memoir, it
later emerged that many of the events described in the book never
happened.