Some things you just can’t write, can you, because people would dismiss them as too silly.

When I was leaving work today I saw a car in the car park with a cooked Cornish pasty tucked under one of the windscreen wipers.

You just can’t script stuff like that, can you?

Dee

I think you could but only if the tone of the story permits it.

The pasty must have been cold. (I'm in Cornwall and we eat Ann's Famous Pasties every Friday night....)

Ani

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As I was gettin ready to click away into the Writers' Archive, it occurred to me that this would be interesting to write a story form! The pasty tucked under the windscreen wiper....

Ani

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'getting' and 'from'

Lovely, bit League of Gentlemen, isn't it?

Taking it to a more sombre place it is very difficult to write reality convincingly.

In Feeling Gravitys Pull the character suffers all manner of tragic accidents and losses and I find myself asking is this believable. But time and again I read of people whose entire lives are a string of bizarre tragedies. And even though you know its true you ask yourself is it?

The most moving story I have ever heard that many would find unbelievable is that of an American trucker I once saw on one of those real life programs.

Driving home one night, during a particularly nasty snowstorm, he came across an accident scene in which a car had overturned. Stopping to check it out he found a young woman trapped inside who was in agony, crying her eyes out crushed under the weight of the car. Having radioed for help he was told that at best it would be just under an hour away due to the weather. Returning to the car to talk to the girl he could she that she wouldn't last that long as the weight of the car pressed against her chest was stopping her from breathing.

Not having any tools to hand, the only thing he could think of was to physically lift the car off of her. Walking to the front of the car he bent his knees and raised the car with a dead lift, this is about one and a half tonnes if not more we're talking about! And if you think that's impressive that's just the start of it. He managed to hold that car in that position for just under an hour until both shoulders gave in under the weight and dislocated! As the car slipped from his grasp he could he the girl start to scream and then stop as the weight once again pressed down on her.

At this point the progam cuts to the driver himself explaining what he did next. Having lost his daughter the year before to cancer, he couldn't bear the thought of this girl in pain or worse, dying. He explained that he remembered how useless he felt not being able to help his daughter and this time he really could make a difference.

So having dislocated both shoulders he layed down on his back and pressed the car off the ground with his legs, locking them into position. He held this car for more than two hours doing this! When the paramedics finally got through they initially thought he'd been involved in the accident! He'd damaged his legs and hips to such an extent he was wheelchair bound for months. And throughout all of this he still found the strength to keep talking to the girl to see if she was ok and to take her mind off the pain!

I think most people, including myself, would find this unbelievable if we were to read it in a book, but nevertheless its a true story!

Geoff

Hope it makes sense I just belted it out there!

Dee, in Starsky & Hutch (film du jour) there's a scene with a packet of cocaine tucked into a windscreen wiper whilst the dynamic duo are driving along, as if that was nothing out of the ordinary for them. So I'd say you have a Tinseltown precedent for your pastie! By the way, were you tempted to eat it? Go on, tell the truth!

Adele

In a mad mad world of infinite variety, of kaledescope emotion and perpetual force, is anything truly unbelievable?

J x

I guess it all depends on your point of view. I find it impossible to believe in the notion of a god, yet countless others have the opposite view.

Another example was recently raised by Dee on my writing regarding a scene where my main character suffers a brain haemorrhage. During this episode he manages to make a phone call which Dee found unrealistic though in reality it's entirely feasible.

I guess the real trick is writing something so convincingly that the reader 'has' to believe it.

Geoff

That’s part of the point I was making, Geoff. If you’re writing about something which is true but difficult for readers to believe, then you have to use your skills as a writer – which you undoubtedly have – to make it convincing.

On the other hand… it might just be me!

Dee.

Life has always been stranger than fiction but we have become preconditioned to assume that anything out of the ordinary is fiction and can not possible be true.

[Edited by david bruce at 08:13:00 on 13 April 2004
Reason: multiple posts removed]

And you posted that at 20.24 but, according to all my clocks, it's 19.35...

You in a different time zone there, Ole?

Dee

Anything that happens in Life, however strange, different or quirky can be written about in a believable way. The question comes when one asks if the reader 'believes' it!

A cold Cornish pasty under a windscreen wiper can be 'explained' in many ways... from the truth as to how it got there, to the creative use of this event to form the basis of a story.

Windscreen wipers are good places to 'hold' anything. I once saw a used condom in this position... the mind boggled!

I don't think that these fascinating, actual events have any connection with 'belief' as Geoff mentions.

Len

Urghhhhh...I really hope the poor sod who's car it was didn't start up the wipers with the condom still there!

But enough grossness. I think it is fair to say that this topic holds real interest to most writers. Authenticity can be a real pain in the ass sometimes. There are certain things I'd love to write about, but really don't have the knowledge to do it. Research is great fun, but one has to assume your readers will trust to your conclusions. Several times I've come across (no pun intended) facts in books which simply don't ring true.

But at other times, it's good to simply suspend belief and go with the flow. A good writer can seduce the reader into believing almost anything.

James x

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I love that word seduce