Comments on: Writing Fiction Based on Fact, or ‘How to Make Life Difficult for Yourself’ http://booksbywomen.org/writing-fiction-based-on-fact-or-how-to-make-life-difficult-for-yourself-by-anna-mazzola/ Sat, 17 Jun 2017 18:55:09 +0000 hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.5.3 By: Ann Griffin http://booksbywomen.org/writing-fiction-based-on-fact-or-how-to-make-life-difficult-for-yourself-by-anna-mazzola/#comment-48686 Sat, 17 Jun 2017 18:55:09 +0000 http://booksbywomen.org/?p=16225#comment-48686 Anna, I encountered the exact problem with my first novel, but I didn’t realize it until it was in the hands of my editor, Kathryn Craft. Letting go of “the facts” as I knew them took me some time. Three months to be exact. And one day I woke up and said, “I can do this.” I thoroughly revised my book, and made the facts fit the story,and where that was impossible, I ditched them. The result is a much better book. Now that I’m beginning my second book, it’s a mistake I won’t make again.

]]> By: Anna Mazzola http://booksbywomen.org/writing-fiction-based-on-fact-or-how-to-make-life-difficult-for-yourself-by-anna-mazzola/#comment-47993 Mon, 10 Oct 2016 17:47:39 +0000 http://booksbywomen.org/?p=16225#comment-47993 In reply to Frances Owen.

Thanks, Frances. Glad it’s useful. Trying to remind myself that it’s not all about facts as I tear myself away from research to finish writing the second novel!

]]> By: Frances Owen http://booksbywomen.org/writing-fiction-based-on-fact-or-how-to-make-life-difficult-for-yourself-by-anna-mazzola/#comment-47992 Mon, 10 Oct 2016 13:26:33 +0000 http://booksbywomen.org/?p=16225#comment-47992 Thank you, Anna, for reminding me what I need to do, even if it’s tough, and also what historical fiction is: fiction, even when based on fact.

Excellent advice. (I wish I’d read it ages ago…)

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