Real stories and real people

Real life provides many wonderful prompts for stories. Except reality just happens to be oddly paced, anti-climactic, lacking in closure, and in some cases too crazy to be believed. So if you plan to base a story on real events and people, don’t worry about sticking too close to the original (unless you’re doing a non-fiction bio, I guess). At some point the story becomes yours. Let it go where you think it should go.

Besides, what’s true anyway? One of my books was inspired by a real person’s relationship, except I “changed her ending.” Only to find out that someone else was in the same situation, and made the exact same choice. Did I know her daw, and did I base my story on her?

I don’t know her, and I didn’t base it on her, but I guess every story can be true for someone out there in the world. There are billions of people walking around with their own stories, after all.

Tags: writing

Mina V. Esguerra