Writing Tips at GarySpeer.com

I’m sure you’ve heard that famous quote attributed to Sigmund Freud, “Sometimes a cigar is just a cigar.” I don’t know the context of the quote, in fact I’ve seen suggestions that it isn’t even a legitimate Freud quote.

But as writers we really need to take it seriously, whether writing about cigars or Mexican freight wagons used on the Santa Fe Trail. (I’ve lost my research notes, but I once did some study on the various types of freight wagons used along that famous trade route by Mexican and “anglo” traders during the 1820s and ’30s.) Whether we’re writing fiction or non-fiction, we need to be as accurate as possible in our writing.

Of course, fiction writers have an advantage here — if we absolutely cannot achieve accuracy, we can make it up. But we cannot effectively make up anything unless we know enough to achieve “truthiness” or believability in what we’ve made up. Readers will quickly lose interest in your writing if it sounds odd or off the mark from what they know about the subject.

Strive for accuracy. Take time to research what you’re writing, or at least carefully plan out what you’re making up if it’s fiction, and achieve believability.

I highly recommend that you take a look at this “Audie L. Murphy Memorial Website,” for a full account of this remarkable man.

As a follow-up on my last post, I felt compelled to direct you to a wealth of information about this remarkable man, who was not just one of my personal favorites in movies I saw as a kid, but more importantly was a true American hero. Personally, I am “anti-war” almost to the point of being a pacifist — ALMOST. But you cannot ignore the atrocities of World War II and the gallantry of this incredible man and the role he played in that war.

As a writer, I encourage you to visit the website and read the various documents on the site, including the fascinating affidavits presented there relating to Murphy’s Medal of Honor. They’re photocopies displayed on the site and not always easy to read, but I hope you’ll take the time. If you do any writing about war, about true warriors, you absolutely MUST learn about Audie Murphy.

I’m reading a well-written adventure novel right now by Stephen Hunter and want to share some thoughts about fictionalizing real-life characters. One of the characters he created in the book made me think about the matter.

The novel is “Pale Horse Coming” and it’s one in a series he’s done about a fictional Medal of Honor winning Marine from World War II named Earl Swagger. The book is set in 1951 in racially tense Mississippi. I highly recommend all the novels I’ve read by Stephen Hunter, and for vivid characters, action plotting, suspense, etc., I would especially recommend this one. BUT –

One of the characters Hunter develops for this novel really grated on my nerves, because the character is such a blatantly, lamely fictionalization of a real-life person. What really jangles my brain as I read the character is the way Hunter made almost no effort to fictionalize him. The character is supposed to be a Medal of Honor winner from rural Texas who was World War II’s most decorated American soldier. At the point he enters the story, this character is a popular Hollywood film actor who’s personal life is deteriorating into depression and alcoholism because he’s haunted by all the killing he did in the war.

Any of you Hollywood buffs or history buffs out there think this character sounds at all familiar? (Hint: The real person Hunter based the character on had a popular 1950s autobiographical movie done on his war exploits — and he played himself in the film.) In Hunter’s book, he gives the fictionalized character the name Audie Ryan. (Pop quiz: What was the name of the real person Hunter used for Audie Ryan?)

If Hunter had named his fictionalized character “Tom Smith,” or perhaps “Jim Martin,” or just about anything else, I probably wouldn’t have been so disturbed. But when he named him Audie Ryan, my first thought was, “Hey, Stephen, you really aren’t even trying are you?” (Answer to Above Pop Quiz: Audie Murphy.)

I’ve thought about my reaction to this and concluded it’s more a matter of personal preferences than any hard and fast “rule” about fictionalizing real people for novels. Had Hunter kept the character as Audie Murphy, perhaps he would have faced legal problems. I have no idea. But as someone who saw “To Hell and Back” as at the movies when I was a kid, and read the book it was based on when I was in junior high, I just felt the name change was so transparent that it was lame. I would have preferred it if Hunter had disassociated the real person from the fictional character with some anonymity in the name.

Those of you who are more knowledgeable about using real-life public figures in fiction, please comment. Give us some guidance about what can or can’t be done regarding public figures when you fictionalize them — what are the legal and ethical guidelines on this? I welcome your comments.