The best lie has a nugget of truth. Likewise, the best fictional story has a nugget, or maybe an entire Happy Meal, of reality. Check out any fantasy book, and you’ll find parallels to either present or historical elements. They might be leaders, wars, or social movements.
Sometimes truth is stranger than fiction, by Coffee made me do it, flicker
So why is truth stranger than fiction? In fiction, we expect loose ends to come together in a way that makes sense. Random events that go unexplained should be rare and minor in a good book. For example, if a mysterious stranger helps the hero, you expect to learn later who that stranger is and why they helped. The same goes for if the stranger attacks them. But in real life, that doesn’t happen. You might be standing on the corner and become the victim of a drive-by shooting. On the other hand, the person ahead of you at the toll booth might pay your toll for you. You don’t get an explanation for either one.
Inexplicable events also happen on a larger scale. Have you ever watched the news or seen an event personally and thought, “That’s too weird to be believed!” (Given what news channel you watch, it maybe shouldn’t be believed.) Many times in life, we see events take place that we never could have predicted, and if you wrote them in a book, no one would believe them.
drone, pixabay
What does this mean regarding fiction? It means that if an event has occurred, even if it’s a weird one, it’s fair game. If people question it, you can shrug and point to real life. That said, there still needs to be support for the event in fiction, because otherwise it can be viewed as a cop-out.
In my books, you’ll see a lot of elements that we’ve seen in the news. I wrote a number of them before the events appeared in the news, such as terrorists using drones, the FBI harboring traitors, and the court system of certain parts of the US government being a pawn for larger powers.
Unclean Evolution series, lcchamplin.com
In my first series Unclean Evolution, the setting is 2016 in our world with nothing different except for an outbreak that turns people into cannibalistic killers. Even this is from reality. Look at the drug flakka.
My new series, tentatively is called Heritage of Liberty, is set in 2046. It’s not related to Unclean Evolution by the way. The new series is a dystopian post-slowpocalypse – that’s when a society-degrading/destroying event happens slowly and thoroughly. Think American Pickers starring Indiana Jones. I wanted to teach the readers something about American history while giving them a good reading experience.
LC Champlin
Since the series is set thirty years in the future, it’s more difficult to write because I have to think about how things would change, given the history-altering event that occurred in 2016. (You’ll have to read the book, Fire of Our Fathers, to see what that critical event is.) I have to become familiar with how certain parts of society work too. I also have to learn about the history I’m trying to bring to light in the story. In the first book, and it doesn’t really matter what order you read the series, we focus on George Washington. Our intrepid heroes are hunting for one of his swords.
Don’t worry, it’s not like reading a history book. But you will learn something new. The series is aimed at my fellow conservative patriots and has plenty of action. It lacks the mature content and brutal violence of Unclean Evolution, mainly because it’s a different genre. Dystopian fiction has a low-level brutality inherent in the world.
bibliophile, wikimedia commons
So, next time you read, keep an eye out for elements in fiction that are similar to those in reality or history. When you write, study up on the past to help create your world.
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