Truth should be no stranger

One of my reasons for posting this story – Just One Last Job – on Vocal earlier today was to demonstrate how fact can be used to make fiction seem more real. This is all part of the job of being able to create authentic fiction stories.

Read the full story: Just One Last Job

I will run though the story, paragraph by paragraph in order to show what was factually based and how much was pure fiction. Did I get the balance right? Does the story seem authentic / believable? You tell me. Any comments gratefully received in comments below. Here is how I began the story:

No more writing assignments. That is what I promised myself. I had ‘retired’ as a freelance journalist and tech author to work on my new novel. Why, then, was I considering this job?

Fact: I used to be a business and technology journalist, working for two major international magazine publishers and media giants during my nine year career from 1987 to 1996. Although please note, the main character in this story is NOT me. Here, by using facts from my own career, I have helped myself to write a convincing story. I did not retire as such, however, but left my last employer in 1996 in order to set up an online media business, which I ran for five years before selling up.

After being driven from my home in Andover, MA, to Boston's Logan Airport, then enjoying a pleasant flight to San José, I was picked up by a limo and driven for my overnight stay at the Barceló. There, I had an early, and very restful, night’s sleep. Suitably breakfasted, I was driven out to meet my host. Brian Cooper lived not too far from the tech empire he had created… but not too close, either. It took a while to get there.

Fiction: As I say, the hero of this story is not me, but a purely made up character, albeit equipped with some of my life's experience. I have never lived in Massachusetts, although I did visit Cambridge and Boston when I was a technology journalist in the 80s/90s. I live, and have always lived, in or near London, England. Why choose Andover, MA? Well I wanted somewhere far enough away from California to make it a significant journey, figuratively, as well as literally. In the story, the actual journey is part of the adventure. I could have chosen anywhere back East, but I did stay for a while in Andover, England, while doing a job there and I have used Andover MA in another story: Telltale Crimson Trail

Literary reference: The line "...lived not too far from the tech empire he had created… but not too close, either," is Chandler-Marlowe inspired. In The Big Sleep, Marlowe speaks of his new client as being the founder of an oil empire who had moved out to the hills, away from the smell of sump oil but close enough to be able to see where his money had come from. I often imitate the first-person writing style of Raymond Chandler to give a story a gritty, noir feel. Itself a kind of authenticity.

“Welcome to the Cooper Estate, Mr Stapleton,” said the immaculately casual young man who met me at the door, offering a well-manicured hand to shake. “Would you like to follow me?”

Fact: I did once attend a business conference, again when I was a tech journalist, held at the palatial home of the well-known owner of a big electronic manufacturer. It was located in California. It had a swimming pool with extensive outdoor bar and entertaining area, and plenty of accommodation for guests. More than that I cannot say. I had this visit in mind when I first wrote the story.

I did, and found myself on an East-facing terrace, overlooking the hills in the distance. This was my third visit to the Valley but the first time I had seen so much real estate belonging to one person. Before I had had much time to enjoy the view, Cooper appeared, dressed in a simple, but no doubt expensive, light blue business suit, shirt neck open but still wearing a jacket despite the growing heat.

Fact: I have visited Silicon Valley twice, both in the 1990s. Had I made this journey at around the time the story was set in, it would have been my third visit.

“Good morning,” he said abruptly, with no attempt to shake hands.

“Good morning, Mr Cooper,” I replied. “Thank you for agreeing to the interview.”

“I did not,” he said. “And if my press team told you I had, they will be hearing from me.”

Fiction: This is all made up and is also Chandler-inspired. More than once, Marlowe was summoned to meet a powerful business character who is abrupt in his manner and expecting all to cower before him. Marlowe of course, cannot be cowed. I have tried to give my character some of this feel, albeit in a more up-to-date persona.

Cooper sat in one of the wicker chairs set out on the terrace and nodded at the one opposite. I got the impression he wanted me to sit and so did.

“I’ll come straight to the point,” he said. “I am planning to retire as Chairman of Co-Tech Semiconductor and am advised by my press secretary that it would be a good time to publish my biography.” I let him continue.

Fiction: More power play on the part of our electronics entrepreneur and business magnate. Our MC is not phased, but lets his subject talk, listening and presumably learning. Not unlike Marlowe.

“I am also advised that you are a competent author, which is why I sent for you.” With that, he took a fat envelope from his jacket pocket and slapped it down on the low table between us.

“You will find 20,000 dollars in there…” he said, indicating the envelope. “No need to count it. That is your advance. My publishing company will discuss royalties another time. You have six months to produce a draft, which my press team will edit. You will be allocated a suite in my home, with living and working facilities provided. Agreed?” It didn’t sound like a question.

Fact: Strange as it may seem, I was once faced with a potential client who offered me, not $20,000, but UK £30,000 cash (about $40,000 at the time), which he had in a bundle on his desk. This was not for a writing assignment (sadly) but a down payment on a media deal. I could not accept it because to pay this amount of money into a UK bank account without receipts would have excited suspicious minds – rightly so. It didn't help that the room used as an office was also clearly being used to smoke cannabis. No way was I going to accept this kind of a deal, much to the disappointment of my sales manager who was with me. This scenario is what led to the turning point in this little short story. I would reiterate that the character in the story is not me and neither is the scenario in the story.

“That certainly is a generous offer, Mr Cooper, but I think I would prefer to invoice you for any advance. I can’t accept that amount of cash and I suspect the IRS would not be happy if I did.”

Fact: More of an assumption on my part but I am guessing the US Inland Revenue Service would take a dim view of such a transaction being handled in cash and not being declared. Personally, I have never earned any money while in the US and so have had no dealings with IRS or any other part of the US Treasury.

Fiction: This is of course the crux of the matter of this story, the turning point. Our hero has been offered a huge some of money in cash to do a job which he already may have doubts about. We are asking the MC to make a decision that could affect the rest of his career, if not life. If he accepts the money, he may have to accept other aspects of the work that he will not like, as well as being a party to a dishonesty, potentially a criminal offence, though one very hard to prove. If he turns the job down, he stands to lose in the same degree. What will he decide? Well of course at this point we know he has turned down the cash offer, possibly losing the job. What will happen next?

For the first time he smiled, and with genuine warmth.

“I’m glad you said that,” he replied. “I don’t like tax swindlers and would have sent you away, empty-handed, if you had laid so much as a finger on that money.”

Fiction: Yes! Our hero has been put to the test, and made the right decision, even though it may cost him a very well paid job. And guess what, he has come up trumps! His potential client was just testing his integrity by offering a too good to be true deal. The MC has passed the test with flying colors with the implication that he has now got the job if he wants it but as a regular, above-board, business deal.

Fact: This is very much where the scenario departs from the real situation I faced as a business owner back in the late Nineties. All that happened to me, my colleague, and the company I owned was that we had to let a potentially lucrative contract pass us by. This results would not, of course, make a very interesting flash fiction story, hence the use of a fictional outcome and win, taking us away from the factual basis which was far less interesting.

The rest of the 20-minute meeting with my new client was as relaxed and informal as any business meeting over a morning coffee could be. We discussed a wide range of topics of his choosing and I let him do most of the talking. It helped to set the scene for the autobiography I had by then been employed to ghost write.

Settling myself into the luxurious apartment in a remote and quiet wing of the sprawling palatial home that evening, I thought that my final assignment could well end up being the best of my writing career.

Fiction: One of the great things about writing a fictional drama is that you can end it however you want to. You can choose an ending for the maximum dramatic impact, regardless of how uninteresting the messy facts of the real-life scenario you have based the story on may in reality be. As the author, you can also impose a clearer moral to the tale, unlike the complex outcomes of real life. Likewise you can dispose of characters as you will. In real life the bastards often win. In fiction you have the power to turn the tables on the bad guy.

Fact: Just a little word of warning. All sorts of legal and other problems can be created if you start writing fictional stories about real people. Particularly if they are easily identified. For this reason, your characters should be entirely fictional, as these are, and there must be no risk of someone thinking you are writing about them. While it's great to imbue your fictional characters with genuine human characteristics, if the people you base the characters on realise this, they may well have a legitimate grievance. If they can afford to pay a fancy-pants lawyer, well....

Of the three characters in this story, there might be a risk (experience says there is) that some readers will think the main character is me, even though I made it clear from the beginning that it is not. If that happens, it is not a problem because the only person who can take issue with this is me. Of the other two characters, the owner of the electronics company I mentioned is highly unlikely to read this story (if he is still alive). If he does, he is even more unlikely to remember my visit in the early 1990s and, even if he does, he is unlikely to feel the story is about him. The character in the story is more like a Chandler character than anyone in real life. Then, if he does want to take issue, where is the evidence to link him to the story? How is his reputation going to be damaged by anyone reading this?

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I hope you found this little discussion, of how fact and fiction may blend together in a fictional story, interesting and useful in your creative writing endeavours. Why not reread my micro fiction story about that sweet deal we would all love to have and see how the fact was woven into the fiction. Or was it the other way around?

Thanks for reading

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