I am a terrible liar. I’m bad at platitudes, I can’t tell people I like their writing when I don’t, and I was never able to get myself out of trouble as a kid. Let’s just say that if I were captured by stormtroopers and held in the Death Star and I knew the location of the hidden rebel fortress and all I had to do to hold off Darth Vader for just a little while longer was to lie that the base was on Dantooine…….. the Empire would have won. The Empire would have definitely won.
All the same, lying and writing actually have a whole lot in common – in both cases, you’re trying to get someone to believe something that isn’t true and using words to try and pull the wool over their eyes.
What makes a good lie? Key details and believability. When a good liar spins a yarn they’re able to fill it with details and tell it in a way that seems to make perfect sense. A good liar can make you feel the sun on their face and the cool splash of water on their arms as they’re catching the big one that got away.
Perhaps the very most common mistake in writing is failing to establish the illusion of reality. The necessity of maintaining this illusion stretches across all levels of the story: from the prose the author employs to the presentation of the emotions and dialogue of the characters to much broader concerns, like the logic of the world and the motivations of the characters based on what we’ve already learned about them.
On the prose level, authors can get tripped up on the minutest of details that take the reader out of the story and make them think, “Oh yeah. There’s someone writing this.” I see this often with imprecise prose and tiny errors of logic that can add up to a world that the reader doesn’t believe: metaphors that clunk and turns of phrase that puzzle the reader and make them remember that they’re reading an invention rather than something that’s real.
On the dialogue and action level, the characters have to look and sound like we know people act (or how robots or aliens or monkeys act). Their reaction to events shouldn’t be so shrill or over the top or muted that we don’t believe they’re real.
And then on the meta level, the world and characters have to obey the internal logic the author establishes throughout the book.
My wife and I have recently gotten hooked on Battlestar Galactica, which is a seriously amazing show and also automatically extended my Nerd Pass for an extra three years. I don’t want to give away any spoilers, but at the end of Season 2 Commander Adama seems serene and complacent at a crucial juncture even though that hadn’t been his M.O. for the entire show up until that point. His entire being had rested on being prepared and competent. I just didn’t believe that the Commander Adama I know would behave like that.
The irony, of course, is that the creators of Battlestar Galactica have successfully convinced me that it is plausible that an evolved race of self-replicating robots have driven humans to the brink of extinction aboard ships that move faster than the speed of light……. but no! I’m getting hung up on a character’s complacency. That I don’t believe.
A good storyteller can make you believe just about anything, as long as the details make you believe someone was there and as long as the internal logic of the world stays consistent.
Or maybe that’s just what the Cylons want us to think.
Nathan
Excellent lesson.
Hate to nitpick but you made a grammatical error. At the beginning of the eighth paragraph I think you meant to say "My 'wives' have…"
dylan
OMG! You love BSG? I knew I liked you for more than your great blog and love of Star Wars. You're the best Nathan!
So say we all!
If you can see the writer in the prose, then it's not a good lie. 😀
haha-
Thanks, Dylan.
I am thinking that you've just read a piece that inspired this very honest post. Indeed. I am not a great liar. Which is, I would love to say, why I only write in my blog: it is the honest depiction of all things me:-)! No lying there. Wish I could lie. Then I could write! Right? Does that mean you cannot write? Just curious.
SB
not too serious i hope
Really talented writers can bring the reader hand-in-hand in on the lie.
You highlight and make some very good points about writing. However, I personally think there is a big difference between lying and writing and that they should not really be compared or thought similar.
Lying is deliberately trying to make someone believe something that is completely false. A writer can definitely write without lying.
No one that starts a post with a Star Wars reference needs to worry about their nerd pass ever expiring.
I was thinking something very similar today as I read Kazuo Ishiguro’s NEVER LET ME GO, and chatted with my husband about it: how incredibly well-written novels establish their setting and then maintain strict control of the fabricated "reality" through writing skilled enough to mask the fictional devices being used. NEVER LET ME GO is one of those novels. With less skilled writing, the devices show through and weaken the illusion of reality.
I watched the entire BATTLESTAR GALACTICA series on DVD. It’s one of my favorite TV shows ever! The writing and acting are beyond awesome!
Yes – writing and lying are by no means the same thing, but they do have a lot in common. Writing is a lot like acting – your goal is to convince someone of something that is not true, like lying, but the difference is that in writing and acting you have the strength of emotional truth behind you. Part of the illusion of reality is rooted in the necessity of emotional truth.
Okay, you JUST discovered Battlestar??? That's not three years of nerd add-on, but five.
re: complacency. humanity has been nearly destroyed. you're flying blind around outer space, hoping not to bump into the U.S.S. Enterprise (and be mistaken for aliens), in a clap trap that resembles (is) the equivilent of a WWII battleship, your leader was a Special Ed teacher and the captain – this is the future where everyone, presumably, has superfree – advanced health care that include DERMABRASION – has a face that resembles a lunar surface. Complacency might be a logical reaction to your craaazzzzyyyyy life. In lieu of Valium which, by then, has been proven not to work anyway, and landlines phones which, strangely, still do.
Mira, thanks for mentioning HuffPo post – loved the last paragraph! It's like everything I'd like in an agent, all rolled into one.
If I may quote from earlier in article:
"Tomorrow's writers are going to have almost limitless ability to include beautiful color photos and art and interactivity and creative design even in the mass-est of mass market books…"
oh yeah!
Funny, I was just about to write a blog post about THE INVENTION OF LYING movie with Ricky Gervais, and note how it applied to story-telling.
In the movie, his character is a script writer for movies — except they are all non-fiction stories that are read by one "actor" sitting in a chair. Since lying hadn't been invented, there was no imagination or need to invent stories that required visuals.
If you haven't seen it, put it on your Netflix queue. The premise is funnier than the execution, but still worth watching!
Aloha,
Rich
http://www.squashedgecko.wordpress.com
I *loved* Galactica. They did such a great job with that one. 🙂 I'm trying to get one of my friends to watch it at the moment.
Anyway, this post made me realize something really interesting. My current story is filled with little asides to the reader, all the things that take you out of the story and are supposed to be big no-nos, but for some reason it works. I just realized because yes, there's a realization that someone is writing it, but that someone isn't me, it's the narrator.
That's really fascinating, and ought to help a lot next time I'm trying to explain something like this to a new writer. 🙂
Battlestar Galactica! Sorry, what was this post about?
Wanda – I agree. Great article. 🙂
When I was a child, people would say "s/he's telling stories," if they didn't believe what you said.
But I've never thought of writing stories as lying. There's a truth being told at some level, isn't there?
Well, I just wrote this novel for which I sort of half invented a world, a few characters, nothing in depth or long winded. But now it's done, I find myself thinking about them, realising things that they would do or be interested in and wondering how they are getting on. Strange – that's my own 'lying' working on myself!
Interesting article…I started to disagree with your premise initially just remembering back to Steven King and his admonition to always tell the truth as a writer. But I think he meant truth in a different sense than we're talking here.
At any rate, I think the initial part of the story is important in getting people to buy into your world. I think the mind is still in the "let's see what this is about" mode and more willing to accept the unusual.
The movie The Matrix does a great job of this. You don't know exactly what's going on…they save the explanations for later…but you learn really quick that it's possible for 110lb woman to whip 5 armed police officers and that she can leap about 50 yards to the next building.
"metaphors that clunk and turns of phrase that puzzle the reader and make them remember that they're reading an invention rather than something that's real."
This is why it's important to use simple words and phrases rather than always try to switch it up in an arty way. I think the best books are both elegant and a pleasure to read. Think "Hunger Games".
Such a fascinating take. Loved the examples.
~ Wendy
Adama is a Adama. As you progress through the seasons, you'll see that along with all the rest of the characters, he's got issues!
Why would you ever want your Nerd Card to expire?
Incidentally this is completely out of season, but still totally awesome (and even on topic, somewhat): Death Star Pumpkin
Nathan,
I enjoy reading your blog and comment on it frequently at my own, http://www.puborperish.blogspot.com
I too, enjoy looking at the revolution of ebooks v. traditional….in that vein…have you seen this article yet
https://craigmod.com/journal/ipad_and_books/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+Tputh+%28TPUTH+-+Breaking+News+With+The+Social+Hammer%29
Great article anon, thanks for sharing.
Your references to Dantooine and Cylons just made my morning a little bit brighter.
Thank you for all the work you do on this blog, Nathan! I'm new to this world of commenting, but thanks to you I'm making an effort. 🙂
I'm a nerd and I can't tell a lie. Is there a connection?
I had a husband who thought my inability to lie was a character defect. He is no longer my husband.
"Fiction reveals truth that reality obscures." Ralph Waldo Emerson
"Fiction is the truth inside the lie." Stephen King
This has to be the most useful post you have ever written. It really made me think about what makes a book believable.
The Invention of Lying
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a-H2dNfx-Uw
Robert Heinlein once detailed the many ways to lie in one of his books (I forget which one–it's been a long time and I'm old). According to the Grand Master, the best way to lie is to tell the absolute truth but in such a way that no one believes you. Don't think that would work in a novel. But what do I know. I always lie and that's the truth.
Word verification: tertally – in the manner of a tertle
This might work in sci-fi, horror, fantasy and other genres. But try telling too many lies in contemporary romance and the online romance reviewers will come after you with their broomsticks 🙂
Fab post! Although I remember some of my favourite thriller writers pointing out that the best way to spot a liar is through the unnecessary embellishments they make to the story…
Nathan:
I felt the same way about that scene!
The girl that played Starbuck now has a starring role in the show "24." In BG she was tough, but in 24 she's a total wuss.
Oscar Wilde had a bit to say on this subject in "The Decay of Lying."
I couldn't agree more Nathan.
Kitty
I love me the BSG. One of the greatest shows ever. On the topic of Adama, I would like to disagree that it's out of character. At least, I never got that impression. I happen to be re-watching the show at this point in time myself and got through the second season just a few weeks ago so it's still fresh in my mind. Anyway, I'd say that if you're chased ragged by a race of robots bent on your destruction and you find a plausible safe haven (the planet was cloaked by the nebula), then it's not unreasonable to want to rest. I think that would be the reaction anyone would have. But he wasn't entirely complacent either. He remained in the planet's atmosphere in case the Cylons did show up. And after awhile of not having them show up, I'm sure anyone might begin to believe that it's okay to let your guard down, if you're thinking you're finally home free. Anyway, that's just my opinion.
As for lying and writing, I wholeheartedly agree. I almost think that being a good liar would make one a good writer and vice versa. It's not so much about deception and circumventing the truth as it is about creating a plausible world wherein an event could conceivably take place or where a belief would conceivably be regarded as truth. It's being able to understand the details of what makes a good story/lie and putting them together to convince the reader/hearer that what you tell is the truth.
Lying has always been difficult for me too.
In NFCW Workshops, as an example, I’ve written heavily about my mother and most of the time I end with the tag, “she said.” When my mother obviously said something. Some of my colleagues suggested that I end with: She said waving a spoon at me. She said tapping her foot. She said as she peered at me.
My mother didn’t do those things.
Therefore, I still consider that lying.
I know many people might think of that as texturing. I do not.
Right now in my NFCW Workshop: “Cesar” is too perfect, too smart and able to do many tasks without reason. My response to being perfect is, “there is nothing perfect in this universe and that most certainly INCLUDES me.”
As for doing a lot: I was the interpreter/translator for CPS, which embroiled me in many “situations” to which a normal secretary would not be privy. If you read my manuscript carefully, I am not doing something extraordinary, all of my functions are administrative. I am not solving world hunger, or designing the new space shuttle.
I am simply doing a lot to keep from sinking back into depression.
I am reminded of something a friend told me when she got a divorce and had trouble dealing: “throw yourself into work. It worked for me.” It worked for me also until I came out of my depression and realized that CPS was the last place I needed to be if I was to get better mentally.
I lament that you took a wrong turn because I needed clarification. My purpose was not to incense you. It was to work with you.
As for the dream sequence you read. IT IS MY FIRST DRAFT. Further, I “raced” thought it. It still scares me to go back to the time that I wanted to die. “Let me sleep=Let me die.”
Thanks for all of your help, Nathan. As I wrote in my first post, “thanks to you, I now have a clue as to how to write a query.”
blurring
the line
in
transformation
jason-
The reason it didn't work for me is that at the beginning of the show Adama had the Galactica pretty well prepared for an attack even though the Cylons hadn't attacked in dozens of years. Then after a year of crazy war with them showing up out of the blue he goes soft after 9 months? I can see letting your guard down a bit and getting distracted, but it was that complacency that didn't work for me.
To me, writing doesn't feel like lying. "Lying" is too crass of a word for what we do.
Maybe this is just my fantasy-minded brain, but I feel more like an enchanter. (Apprentice enchanter, in my case.) If I'm doing it right, I'm weaving the spell so strongly that it can't be easily broken, and the reader is caught. That's certainly how I feel when I'm entrapped by a good book. When the text jars in a not-so-good book, the spell is more easily broken.
In mundane terms, I also tend to think of telling a good story as selling a strong argument. It's sort of like writing a college essay, but with many more nuances.
Oh man Nathan, strap in for season 3, episode 4. A-mazing.
When you're done with the series, you should check out Moore's new show Caprica. It's one of the best on TV right now.
dan-
Oh wow, almost there – we're on Season 3 episode 3. Looking forward to catching up with Caprica too, I've heard good things.
Battlestar Galactica episode "33" was FANTASTIC. What an intense experience. I'm also enjoying Caprica.
I want to love BSG, I really do. (Okay, I don't care, but since my hubby loves it so much, there MUST be something good about it, right?)
But … I frackin' can't.
Not with words like "fracking."
I'm with you too, Moses. I loved the first season of Battlestar.. but I felt that as the series went along, the characters got more and more inconsistent with how they'd been initially established, especially Adama, and only Edward Olmos saved that character from being unlikeable. (I wouldn't say he was the worst though. I think they totally ruined Gaeta with that nonsense in season 3. He was never, ever an ends justify the means type of guy.) Interestingly, I think the most consistent character is also one of the most universally reviled — Baltar. 😉 I always had a soft spot for Crazy Ass Baltar in season 1, and while I was not immune to how detestable he got, he was, I felt, completely consistent all through. Simply because they established him early on as a character who'd do whatever self-serving action was needed to get him what he wanted. Also Roslin was pretty consistant, I think. Sometimes you forgot what a hardass she was and it surprised you when she'd put her air-lockin' face on, but I don't think the writers ever forgot about how quick she could be to space your ass. But everyone else spent some time doing stuff that just made me go, "Huh? Who the hell is writing so and so this week?"
A lie is meant to hide the truth, a story is meant to show it.
If your writing is not honest, it will fail.
I love the idea of this article, but I have to disagree with your description of lying being about details. It's actually more believable when you leave out details, because when a person recounts a real memory or event they're more likely to forget things than remember all the little details. Other than that, you've got a good point—pretty much all writing is trying to get your reader to believe that it's actually happened/happening and to draw them into the story as if it was completely real. That's why, personally, my favourite books make me fall head over heels into the world they're describing and building up in my mind with their words.
Also, I'm a huge nitpicker when it comes to the correct use of ellipses, and I thought it was only ever meant to be '…'? That's just me being my normal persnickety fifteen-year-old self, though.
Lolz. Nikki Clyne is in Battlestar Galactica. I've never seen it, but I've seen Godkiller… with Nikki Clyne.
+5 or me on obscure apocalyptic horror card. Never getting rid of this one.
Anyway, I have to agree with the "writing is like lying" thing.