Tag Archives: truth

Lies, Damn Lies and Fiction

01 Sunday Oct 2017

Posted by in Writing

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Based on a True Story 10_01_17

Photo adapted from original by docentjoyce. Used under Creative Common license.

Two years ago, I read a short story I had written called “The Cannibals of Kitsap.” The story follows a boy who develops an eating disorder after his father loses his job. After the reading, a woman walked up to ask me how the story ended. “Did your father find another job after that,” she asked. I was thrown off. She thought the plot was autobiographical, that this had actually happened to me. I had to admit that everything was fabricated, based on an idea I’d had rather than reality.

As writers, one of the first pieces of advice many of us receives is to “write what you know.” Some people take that advice literally and only write about their own experience. Many readers have caught on and expect that the all fiction is thinly veiled personal recollection. That may work for some writers, but my life isn’t all that interesting. Fiction should be grounded in reality, but I don’t like limiting myself to my own life. My imagination is not that small, nor are those of most writers I know.

This week, I’ll be playing with the idea of truth and lies in fiction as part of the third annual Creative Colloquy Crawl. I’ll be hosting a reading at on Tuesday, October 3 at 8pm at Doyle’s Public House called “Lies, Damn Lies and Fiction.” Local writers Jenni Prange Boran, Sam Snoek-Brown and Jonah Barrett will share stories and then we’ll have a Q&A style discussion about what in their work is based on true events and what is made-up. The Creative Colloquy Crawl is a literary pub crawl in downtown Tacoma that brings together lovers of the written word together for an evening of great storytelling. I hope to see you there!

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Jonny Eberle is a writer, photographer, and filmmaker in Tacoma, WA. His fiction has appeared in Creative Colloquy.

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Write Like Hell

30 Wednesday Nov 2016

Posted by in Rants, Writing

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Photo used under Creative Commons 2.0 license courtesy of Liz West.

The last few weeks have been tumultuous in this country, in my circle of friends, in my own life. After a major political upset on Election Night, many are worried about the direction we’re headed in — and rightly so. We’ve elected a man with disturbing authoritarian leanings; who believes dissent should be punished and advocates for limits on our First Amendment rights to free speech, religious exercise, peaceful assembly, and the press.

As an artist, I am deeply troubled by these remarks, however off-hand they may seem. Even a veiled or vague threat against free expression is a threat to be taken seriously. What are creative people supposed to do when a person who makes those kinds of threats assumes the highest office in the land?

Write like hell.

Whatever your medium, use it. Write stories, poems, protest songs. Scupt, paint, dance, blog, or tweet. Art has always been there to challenge structures of power.

  • In 1945, Boris Pasternak started writing Doctor Zhivago on paper that was sent to him by the widow of a friend who had been executed by the Soviet Union for his poetry. Pasternak’s novel dared to question the bloodshed of the revolution and his manuscript had to be smuggled out of the country to be published (it was later smuggled back in by the CIA).
  • In the 1960s and ’70s, musicians wrote songs protesting the Vietnam War and highlighting its many injustices, like Creedance Clearwater Revival’s Fortnate Son, a song about how the rich and well-connected were able to keep their sons from going to war.
  • This year, 130 writers and journalists were jailed after an attempted coup in Turkey, including novelist Aslı Erdoğan, whose novels, stories, and articles deal with human rights, violence against women and Kurdish rights.

Your work could be protest, but it doesn’t have to be. A friend and I are redoubling our efforts to write a how-to guide for people to have respectful political conversations. It’s nothing new or earth-shattering, but with luck, it can be a small part of the solution to the toxic partisan environment that surrounds American politics.

The world needs art. Especially art that unflinchingly holds up a mirror to us and our society. Art that nudges people to think and question and come to their own conclusions. Write about what you’re passionate about. Write with conviction. Write the truth. The pen truly is mightier than the sword.

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Jonny Eberle is a writer in Tacoma, WA. You can find him on Twitter or working on any one of a dozen writing projects. Thanks for reading.

The Trouble With Self-Disclosure

29 Wednesday Jan 2014

Posted by in Writing

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When I first started writing, I didn’t know how personal it was. I thought I was writing about heroes and villains far removed from my dull existence. It took several years before I realized that I was actually writing about myself.

That doesn’t mean my characters are facsimiles of me. But deep down, at the core of the story, there is a truth about myself. It is layered into every story like the mortar between the bricks. A story told right, it turns out, has to have a basis in your own fears, brokenness and resilience.

Nowhere have I learned this lesson more keenly than in the writing of this very blog. I set out to chronicle the writing process from my eccentric point of view, but over the years it has evolved into a reflection of my inner life. I didn’t set out to write a memoir, but it happened anyway.

Writing, it turns out, is a very public art form. You wind up laying your faults, your aspirations and your dreams in the spotlight. I don’t mind being transparent, but sometimes I have to censor myself, because when it comes to the Internet, offhand comments can come back to haunt you years later. Some matters need to stay private; some insecurities should be safeguarded. That’s difficult to do when I see great bloggers and novelists alike earning praise for publishing their darkest secrets and the minutia of their everyday lives.

That is the balancing act of the writing life. How do you weigh self-disclosure against mystery? How can you be honest with your audience without exposing the inner workings of your relationships, family or workplace? How do you guard those boundaries without sacrificing the truth of the story? Any ideas?

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Jonny Eberle asks a lot of questions. He is also a writer in Tacoma, WA and a frequent Twitter user. Thanks for reading?

An Open Letter to Sherlock Holmes

18 Monday Jun 2012

Posted by in Review, Writing

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Dear Mr. Holmes,

Despite being thoroughly aware that you’re a fictional character, I must admit I’ve always felt that you and I were kindred spirits. I became a fan of your work shortly after I learned how to read. I don’t know when or where I happened upon that green, leather-bound book with gilded pages containing Dr. Watson’s notes from 19 of your cases, but I cannot underestimate its impact on my life.

Somewhere between the first line of A Scandal in Bohemia and the heart-wrenching final scene in The Final Problem, I decided that I wanted to be you. Being the sidekick or one of the Irregulars wasn’t enough. When my peers wanted to be firefighters or astronauts, I craved the exciting, enigmatic life of a private investigator.

Determined to be my elementary school’s first private consulting detective, I founded my own short-lived agency in the third grade. We only tackled one mystery and to the best of my knowledge the Case of the Compact Disc Thief remains unsolved.

In my eyes, you were superhuman — the good doctor and I were always in awe of your powers of deduction. You were everything I wanted to be: erudite, unflappable, self-assured with no desire for fame or reward money and perfectly at home in a deerstalker cap. I, too, wanted to fight the criminal underbelly of Victorian London. I wanted to be the person Lestrade came to when the case seemed unsolvable. Above all, I wanted the pipe.

But the thing I found most inspirational about you was your fallibility. More than once, you fell prey to your inner darkness. You lost yourself to addiction, obsession and depression. Once, I even feared you were dead. Both of us were misfits. You were like me — a human being with human faults. You were my hero because you could be beaten.

A long time ago, you told me that when you have eliminated the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth. I’ve never given up on my quest to discover the truth and I have your advice to thank for it. I may have retired from professional detective work, but I still relish a good mystery and I enjoy my occasional visits to 221B Baker Street.

Thank you for everything, Mr. Holmes. In my youth, few people were as real to me as you. I will forever consider you among the best and wisest men whom I have ever known.

Very sincerely yours,
Jonny Eberle

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I deduce that you are an intelligent person who is both well-read and tech savvy. This being the case, you should have no trouble following me on Twitter at @jonnyeberle. See what I did there?