STORY

Is There Fiction in All Truth?

As a career, I have analyzed stories since 1992 as a studio executive, network writing instructor, and story consultant, and I felt inspired to write this post about the tenuous relationship between truth and fiction. There is often a lot of controversy over the liberties taken with the truth in some stories. The question of whether there is fiction in all truth reflects the idea that everyone has their own worldviews. These worldviews influence how a story is experienced in the moment and how it is told. Does this element of emotion add a kind of fiction to all truth? Facts carry truth. However, each person’s perception and experience may add a fictional element to what is. Storytelling is perspective, not a dry recitation of facts. When you add emotion to a factual situation, it connects to the story and explains why we care.

The film, The Imitation Game, sparked controversy over its factual accuracy. As quoted in the article on Deadline, “The Weinstein Co.’s has been scrutinized by historians who argue the film, directed by Morten Tyldum and scripted by Graham Moore, beefs up Turing’s contributions to England’s codebreaking exploits, his relationship with female analyst Joan Clarke and the degree to which he might have placed on the Asperger’s/autism spectrum in the name of artistic license.” In the same article, the following is said about Selma, “Paramount’s Selma, the critically acclaimed account of Martin Luther King Jr.’s leadership of the Selma-to-Montgomery civil rights marches of 1965, weathered a volley on Monday -- just as the Oscar polls opened -- over its suggestion that President Lyndon Johnson didn’t quite step eagerly up to the plate to help out King and his cohorts in their quest for equal voting rights.” There was also significant controversy about the film Nixon over what was true and what was false.

The question becomes: how much liberty is too much when it comes to adding fiction to the facts? Imagination is a huge part of a story. It comes from the writer and director. The moment they are hired, it is up to them to bring the facts to life through a unique perspective that tells the story while elevating the emotion. What artists bring to historical events is a different worldview. They add their voice to these events. They add a personal angle that reflects their emotional truth. In the process, we learn about these events through a unique lens that both entertains and informs. We need to embrace this. We shouldn’t doubt it, criticize it, or try to take away from all that it is. Audience members go into films knowing that there is a mixture of truth and fiction. We should relish how the filmmaker's imagination adds an element to a story that can make it live on in our hearts and minds because of the way it was told.

In my former career as a studio executive, there was a time when no one wanted to touch autobiographical stories. Writers were told not to write them. Real life was seen as not all that interesting. Now, it has completely changed. There’s a trend toward exploring how your emotional truth can get you work as a writer. It’s all about why you are the perfect writer to tell your story. It’s about understanding how to tell it in a way that sells. It’s about how your truth, when mixed with certain concepts, can make them stronger. We all know that life, with all its in-between moments, isn’t as compelling as movies. Real-life story arcs don’t often unfold in a way that fits dramatic structure. So, fiction is needed to bring fact-based truth to life through various emotional lenses.

I believe that fiction is infused in every story. I think that this is what storytelling is. From the time we are children, repeating to our parents what happened at school during the day, we learn to embellish or add our own perspective. From our perspective, this is true. Someone else who witnessed the same event may have a totally different view. The most important part of telling a story is being able to come from a place of emotional truth. Emotional truth is not the same as factual truth. With factual truth, technical facts are given about events that occurred within a certain time frame. What brings fact to life is emotion. With emotion, you get a different kind of truth, a valuable kind of truth. Fiction might be added to this truth. However, if it is well-written and well-directed, the emotion comes through rather than the facts.

When we go to the movies, we all have different views on what makes a strong story. This is because we view and experience stories through our emotional lenses shaped by events in our own lives, which evoke universal emotions we connect with. It doesn’t make one right and the other wrong. It just means that one person felt what was being said, while the other may not have had the life experience of a similar emotion to help them connect with the story.

There is a purpose to adding fiction to truth. Life doesn’t happen in a perfect dramatic structure. Moments of life are worth telling. You have to structure them. To tell a story well, you have to structure it so the audience can understand your message and feel what you are trying to say. To do this, the writer and director must bring their worldview into the equation. Whether these factual films stick to the facts or not, the emotional stories they tell are told brilliantly. It is about celebrating the filmmaker's voice and how their lens shapes the story.