Fact and fiction

Posted by Simon on 1st, August 2012 at 14:38:25

I've just been reading a debate on the merits of realism in detective fiction, and think it would make a worthwhile few words for a blog.

So, here we go, with the Hall take on it all -

It is a question I sometimes have put to me; that a problem with the tvdetective books is that, in real life, it's unlikely a journalist would be allowed so close to a police investigation. But happily,  I never worry too much about reality.

(Quick digression - I suspect I'm all the happier for it, but back to the point...)

As to why I don't worry unduly about reality, well, there's a clue in the specialist word for these book things that we such authors write, and it's this - fiction.

We're here to entertain.  Not to give you chapter and verse on police procedures.  For that, a book known as non-fiction is required.  And they tend to be rather less popular as good old escapist entertainment.

The world can be unpleasant enough - or even less than exciting - for plenty of people. Why add to it?  Why not entertain instead?

I'm not saying there doesn't have to be some connection with the real world.  I think a plot and the characters should be plausible.  But even if unlikely, so long as they're providing decent entertainment, what's the problem?

If readers want to be analytical, they're quite capable of dividing what's likely to be the way things really are, and what's not. 

If books which contain an element of policing try to be too true to life, they'll end up reaching  thousands of pages long and be deadly dull for most of their span. For such can be the mundane reality of the job.  A policeman's lot, is indeed, not always a happy one.

We writer folk just take a few hints of reality and dress them up in action and drama, intrigue and suspense.  I enjoy writing them that way, so hopefully people will enjoy reading them, too.

The critics who have a problem with it perhaps take life a little too seriously.  And in my humble view, that's a dreadful error.

I am though, of course, always happy to answer questions about the tvdetective books, or any areas of my writing work. If you've got a question, you can get in touch via the contact page of the site - www.thetvdetective.com/contact.html

Finally, a song for this blog, and as I'm on a theme of not taking life too seriously, how about something a little different?  Thus I choose I Am The Very Model of a Modern Major General, from The Pirates of Penzance.  Because I defy you to listen and not smile.

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