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24 Writing Contests in August 2016 - No Entry Fees

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Paul Whybrow

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Jun 20, 2015
Cornwall, UK
My WIP is the third in a series of psychological thrillers featuring a Cornish detective. I chose to set the action in the present, the summer of 2016. I did so, for various reasons, including verisimilitude, but it's thrown up some unexpected problems.

Fiction can be oddly disconnected from the time that it was written. This is good, in that it gives the story a timeless quality, but strange if the author totally ignores world events that would have an impact on the protagonists. I once read some hardboiled detective stories set in the 1940s, where WWII wasn't mentioned at all.

Of course, if the action hinges on warfare, the refugee crisis or economic recession then how they affect the novel's characters will be integral to the writing. My WIP has two murders that turn out to be linked, with subplots of livestock rustling and the Beast of Bodmin Moor—a legendary big cat that takes sheep, and does much for the selling of the county to tourists as a spooky place to visit.

The recent referendum on the UK's membership of the European Union would affect the farmers in my novel, so I mentioned that—daft not to, as Cornwall is the poorest county in the country and heavily dependent on grant aid. I was drawing on anecdotes told to me by farmers for the threat posed by a puma or lynx being on the loose. But then, to my amazement, real life intruded with a lynx escaping from Dartmoor Zoo, (60 miles away), and then, the owner issued a statement declaring that a previous owner deliberately released three pumas into the wild!

Beast of Dartmoor mystery solved after famous circus owner Mary Chipperfield 'set three Pumas free in 1970s'

I didn't know whether to feel happy that my storyline wasn't far-fetched or annoyed that real life was intruding into my fictional world! I'm glad that I'm sane, for an unstable author might think he was a Literary God creating the news by writing it....

How do other Litopians handle pesky real life entering their fictional world?

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How do other Litopians handle pesky real life entering their fictional world?
I take advantage of the ignorance of physicists about black holes. By that way, it will take quite some time before science advances enough to defeat my fictional black hole creatures.
 
Thank you, Christopher. English is my mother tongue, but I've had a French speaking education, so I sometimes miss the meaning of some words. There are all kinds of interesting ideas among Litopedians! I like Paul having wild cats coming into his detective story.
 
I'm experimenting now with a sort-of medieval setting and have to catch up on the realities of life in this period to make the story sensible- it really annoys me when setting or facts are historically incorrect in books, so I treat it seriously. Fortunately enough, I happen to live with an expert medievalist :D

The more I write speculative fiction, the more I discover that it's actually a lot of work to keep things legit- more so than in lit-fic! You make up a world and all your ideas seem great, but then it's a pain to make them believable. I find the economy/currency-related issues the most burdensome. And the best solution I have as far is good old history. There is nothing we could make up that wouldn't already happen at some point in the world- you just have to look it up and take some inspiration.;)
 
I'm experimenting now with a sort-of medieval setting and have to catch up on the realities of life in this period to make the story sensible- it really annoys me when setting or facts are historically incorrect in books, so I treat it seriously. Fortunately enough, I happen to live with an expert medievalist :D

The more I write speculative fiction, the more I discover that it's actually a lot of work to keep things legit- more so than in lit-fic! You make up a world and all your ideas seem great, but then it's a pain to make them believable. I find the economy/currency-related issues the most burdensome. And the best solution I have as far is good old history. There is nothing we could make up that wouldn't already happen at some point in the world- you just have to look it up and take some inspiration.;)

As novelist Iain M Banks observed: The trouble with fiction is that it has to make sense, whereas real life doesn't.
 
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24 Writing Contests in August 2016 - No Entry Fees

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