This post’s title sums up my experience of writing fiction.

Novels and short stories, especially those belonging to the “literary fiction” category, feature something critics and professors alike call “truth”. This truth is what is true for the author. Readers pick up on the themes and project their opinions on how these themes show this truth. The author’s work of fiction becomes something more than it is, becoming a sort of puzzle for readers to decipher in order to understand the truth/themes the author wishes to convey. That might be true, it might not.

But in my experience, writing is a different kind of puzzle. Words, phrases, sentences, paragraphs, chapters, everything comes together to form a work of fiction. I like to treat each piece of the fiction puzzle (words, phrases, etc.) as a moving part, a piece of movable type. I move things around, everything hopefully falling into place like a game of Tetris. It takes a large amount of maneuvering, a significant effort on my part, until I come across something, anything that makes me say “Ah, this is perfect.”

But my focus on this puzzle does not stem from the thematic parts of fiction. No. I try to use each part of my fiction to create interesting characters, a tight plot, and fluid pacing. I find these items infinitely more important in fiction than themes and “truth” – whatever that might be. I want to convey “truth”, certainly, though the truth around characters take precedence. I might not do any of the aforementioned three things perfectly, or even competently, at this point but that is what I aspire to be. I do not want any of my stories or novels taught in classrooms at any level based on the presumption that my works are some kind of commentary on our world. There is too much analysis in fiction anyway.

Next time you read a novel or short story, take the time to consider the characterization and plot development. These are the areas writers spend an incredible amount of time and effort perfecting. Expound on themes all you want, but the key to fiction puzzle is deciphering characters, their motivations and actions, and how they impact the plot. I feel that it is paramount to thematic interpretations, and more rewarding as well.

Martin