What nonfictional topics have you explored in your fiction writing?
Q&A With Shay Each Sunday
A version of this post appeared in March, 2019.
Fiction is basically reality, sometimes better, sometimes worse. People like to say “stranger than fiction” but some fiction can be pretty strange. Just the way I like it. Or “you can’t make this stuff up.” Actually you can, and even the weirdest fiction is inspired by nonfiction to some extent. Also, fiction writing is making things up.
Q: What nonfictional topics have you explored in your fiction writing?
A: So many. I tend to write fairly dark stories. Not quite as much as I used to because I honed my craft and realized I was being somewhat melodramatic and unrealistic with my earlier writing. But, dark themes, especially psychological or emotional ones intrigue me.
I have explored depression in a couple stories, and especially in my forthcoming novel Fractured. Also along those lines, I have explored cutting, suicide, self-medication, and sexual assault. I feel these subjects are important to bring awareness to, especially as we’re currently and constantly molded by society and modern culture, and for readers to get to follow a difficult journey with a relatable character who struggles in a way that many everyday people do.
I have always really wanted to explore shyness, even selective mutism, given my resonance with this (you can read my first blog on selective mutism here), but it’s incredibly hard to pull off. I tried to work shyness in a bit in my novel Fractured, but the character who was shy was not the narrator and I think that’s one of the reasons it ultimately didn’t work the way I wanted it to. I had received comments about that character being too mysterious and vague in initial drafts, and not getting to know her enough, which of course is what real shyness is. But it doesn’t make for the most interesting character interactions, which is frustrating because that’s also the reality of it. However, we have to be able to get to know the characters in a story. It could probably work a lot better if the shy character was the narrator though because you’d be able to read all the internalizations. So, I’m sure it’s something I’ll explore again in a different project. It’s there to an extent in Fractured, but not as much as I initially envisioned.
Here’s a slight digression on selective mute characters (and I haven’t actually ever tried to write one before): I have actually read two young adult books, and saw one YA show, that had selective mute characters (both were narrators in the books) which is surprising to truly think about now, because whenever I mention selective mutism to someone, no one knows what it is before I explain it. What I don’t like about its representation in fiction though, that I have seen thus far, is that it’s prompted by one single event that causes the character to stop speaking and then they eventually just overcome it and it’s resolved. The characters also never suffered with it when they were younger, it was something that developed later. As someone who has dealt with it all her life, I know that’s not how it works (for me anyway). So, maybe one day I’ll be able to represent it in a way I feel is more accurate in a fictional work—or maybe I’ll eventually write a memoir and work it in, another goal of mine.
Back to exploring nonfictional topics in fiction: I have explored online dating in my story “You Were There.” I explored the obligation that people feel to be polite even when it could put them in danger in “Stranger in the Snow.” I explored what happens when an impressionable person lets themselves get manipulated and led down a dark path that they may not be able to come back from—for another person. I have explored grief, delusion, love, betrayal, pain, basically what makes up a human being.
In my book of poetry I wrote a lot about nature. I had written a lot of old poems before putting the book together that were inspired when I was sitting outside, observing. Sometimes I find myself in awe of nature and I try to describe it in a way that can do any justice, while being accurate in a way no one would have thought of—which I guess is the goal of nice writing in general. I explored broken friendships and betrayal in several poems from my own personal experiences. Though those poems actually were nonfictional nonfiction, I suppose. Some of my poems are fiction though, which I realized is not totally common for poetry. In a sense, fiction almost feels like a realer way to express a situation to me.
What I was fascinated by most when I started my first book Crashing Waves—almost ten years ago—was the way in which other humans see (but don’t really see) and judge someone without knowing their whole story. We all do this on literally an everyday basis. It’s pretty impossible not to. But, it’s still important to have the awareness. Thinking about life in all its dimensions gives us more awareness, and writing can give clarity (also a lot of confusion). A side note is that this book ended up completely changing and is still probably going to, but that intention I had when I began has always stuck with me. I feel writing is basically trying to make sense of things in our own voice, because everything has been done before and no story is necessarily new, but we make them ours.
What are your favorite nonfictional topics to explore in fiction?
