Turning Facts into Fiction with Lisa Lang

When it comes to researching, Helen Garner says we should not feel overwhelmed by facts. Be less like a timid field mouse creeping amongst the high grass and more like an eagle that soars above it, getting the lay of the land.

…often when people are writing a thesis or something that’s based on research, they become entrapped by the document, they think ‘if I can just stay inside my research I’ll be okay’ and they just creep forward step by step and what they produce is unbearably tedious and boring. So what you’ve got to do at a certain point is, as one writer I know said, ‘you’ve got to pick up your material and dance with it.’ *

It’s great advice. But what about novel writers? How should we approach the task of turning a vast field of facts, (especially those already well-documented and archived) into fiction? And how do we avoid being overwhelmed by all the careful research that we’ve immersed ourselves in (and possibly procrastinated in) for months and months?

These were some of the questions that I took along to Lisa Lang’s Facts to Fiction workshop in Darwin recently.

‘Claim the territory for your own imagination.’

Lang’s advice is to do your research first, then put it aside while you create your fictional version of events. Then, once the story is underway, there may be more directed research queries that need to be followed up. But how much research is enough? Fiction writers, she said, should conduct enough research to enable them to know what the historical setting felt like – right down to the smell of horse shit in the streets.
The key, Lang says, is ‘not to feel beholden to the facts, like they own you.’ Sticking too closely to your researched facts can mean that your writing will ‘die on the page. You need to take risks an dmake leaps of the imagination.’ To illustrate this point, Lang gave examples from Utopian Man, her recently released, Vogel-award winning historical novel about EW Cole. (You can hear Lisa Lang talk about the facts and fiction behind her novel, here on Radio National’s The Bookshow)

The How-to

Back at the writing workshop, Lang was keen to get us writing. To bring historical settings and characters to life, she said, we needed to focus on the

• decriptions using the 5 senses,
• character’s inner lives and,
• emotional drivers behind each scene.

She walked us through this process using examples from Blonde, a novel about Marilyn Monroe by Joyce Carol Oates. Next, we each wrote short scenes based around a well-known piece of Northern Territory history. (Lang has promised a return visit in 2011, so this article won’t be a spoiler.)

‘A chronology of some one’s life, from birth to death, does not make a good piece of fiction,’ Lang said. ‘So the very first step is for you to decide where to begin the story you want to tell.’

This was perhaps the most liberating part of the workshop, when Lang showed us how to ‘take ownership’ of the historical material using narrative elements such as structure and point of view. Here is where Lang’s choice of JC Oates’ extraordinary novel – with its time slips and swift changes in perspectives – really came to the fore.

Lisa Lang is not only a talented writer, but she presents an informative, entertaining and well-designed workshop. Catch her in 2011, if you can.

* I/V with Helen Garner