“Writing fiction feels like an adventurous act, nudging aside reality a word at a time.”
― James Van Pelt
Although I was still avoiding Instagram completely, and all but ignoring LinkedIn, I believed I had become sophisticated in my use of social media over the last year. But not too long ago I got a taste of how much I had yet to learn when I discovered Quora . It turns out that there are tons of social media I didn’t even know existed, and more becoming available every day.
Meet Quora
If you haven’t checked out Quora you are in for a treat. People from all over the world submit questions from the ridiculous to the sublime. Sometimes the ridiculous make sense, if only you had some background information to help put the question in context, like “Where is the best place to llve in Chicago?”. I would imagine ‘best’ depends on who you are and what you want.
Sometimes you could write a book (or several) to answer a question. For example, “What are the best strategies for social media marketing?” has an entire section devoted to it in the library. Other questions are just ridiculous in their own right, but very entertaining, such as “Why do I hate horror movies?”. The sublime questions, for me at least, are the ones that ask about writing, publishing and novels. No surprise there.
A Bit about Quora
On Quora, anyone can answer any question and sometimes I am the anyone submitting the answers. . It seems that people enjoy reading my responses on the topic of romance novels. It was quite a surprise when Quora notified me that I am the most viewed writer on the topic of romance novels. Pretty cool. If people like my answers, they can ‘upvote’ them, similar to adding a ‘like’ on Facebook. When I get an upvote, it feels like winning an Oscar. Very cool!
One of the other useful things about Quora is that by perusing it, I can discover what’s on people’s minds. First, I select the categories I am interested in following – mine are Chicago, Writing, Romance Novels and the like. Then, when people have questions on these topics, Quora sends them my way to answer, or I can just go exploring to see what people are discussing on any topic. Horror films are popular now that Halloween in approaching, and sadly, there are many questions regarding dealing with depression.
The Question in Question
You might ask why I am mentioning Quora now. Sure, I wanted to brag about being most viewed, but that’s not my real purpose here. The reason I am mentioning Quora now is that someone submitted a question that I chose to answer. First, the question really resonated with me so that I couldn’t stop thinking about it. Second, I felt compelled to answer it. Finally, it has been getting a lot of upvotes, more than 10% of viewers have given it kudos
The question read as follows” How do I tell my traditional (slightly homophobic) family that I’m writing an LGBT romance novel and enjoying it?”
This struck an instant chord with me and I immediately decided I wanted to answer it. I should mention for the sake of clarity that I do not write LGBT fiction, but I still considered myself a good source to reply. I knew nothing about the questioner, not their gender, their age, nothing. Just the small amount of information I could glean from their question.
Why did I feel so strongly that I could provide a good answer to the questioner? Because the question was about writing fiction. Regardless of the specifics, the real question was about discussing the novels you write with your family and friends. For me the issue was writing erotic romance, for the questioner it was LGBT romance.
Here was my position. It is fiction – not fact – that we are writing. Perhaps the questioner is writing LGBT fiction from personal experience, perhaps not. Maybe he/she/they do not want to come out to their parents, or maybe they just find the topic one they explore. I will never know. It didn’t matter to my answer. It doesn’t matter, period.
The Essence of Fiction
Take a closer look at fiction authors. I write about billionaires. Trust me, I am not a billionaire myself, but that’s okay because I write fiction. My characters are under 40, I am not. Sure, I like to read paranormal romance sometimes, but never once have I assumed that the author is a vampire, or a shapeshifter, or – God forbid – both! I don’t believe that authors like Julia Quinn lived through the regency period, that Alice Hoffman experiences magic in her life on a daily basis or that Diana Gabaldon traveled through time. We write fiction.
That’s the wonderful thing about fiction. Each author decides how much or how little of themselves to include in the pages of their books. They can tell their own story, changing the names to protect the guilty or innocent, or they can do copious research to create a story against a realistic backdrop. They can even make up everything they write, creating worlds that will never exist but that we will love forever. It’s fiction in every case.
I have never eaten at Tru, or been on the Navy Pier Ferris wheel. I had a lovely time exploring them for my novel Bedeviled, but for me they were a setting that I researched, not experienced first hand. Although I wish I could say I have, I never stayed in a mansion on the shores of Lake Tahoe. Looking at real estate and choosing a house to use for inspiration in Beholden was almost as much fun as finding gorgeous models for my covers. They may have been inspired by reality but still, they were all fictional.
Keeping Fiction –well – Fictional
Personally, I think life would be very dull if our fiction were all written by authors who had to experience what they wrote. We would be missing John Scalzi’s Lock In which is one of my favorite books, or Alice in Wonderland, for that matter. My own books would not exist either,
My advice to the questioner was to remember and embrace the fiction aspect of their LGBT writing. Whatever their interest in the genre, they choose to write about it for their own personal reasons, reasons their family never need understand. Instead, their family should do as I did – wish the author success in their venture. LGBT fiction has a large demand that this author can help to fulfill. That is sufficient reason. Many authors write to market.
I write erotic fiction, and I have touched on the subject of the sex in my books here on my blog before. My interested and intrepid readers regularly bombarded me with questions about my sex scenes, wanting to discover if they are based on first hand experience. I get asked about the characters in my books, or stories I tell, as if I have lived every moment I put on paper. I am grateful that my readers find my work realistic, and that they are curious enough to keep reading my novels.
Come a little Closer…
So here is a little something – a tiny tidbit – that I am willing to confide to you. Some of my scenes are based on my personal experience. A few of the characters are inspired by relationships in my past, including the sex scenes.
Oh no, I’m not going to tell you which ones. Use your imaginations. After all, this is still fiction.
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