How to write fiction: imagenless guide

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Welcome to a cynical, pseudo-intellectual and… I’m out of adjectives, analysis. Anyways, welcome to this blog entry where I’ll tear apart… no, no really — some of the advice is good; a very well known and popular website on how to do stuff — without images. That if we don’t count the main image and… a good one Big Choma is lending me to illustrate one of the advice points.

NOT TRUE OR NOT REAL

The famous website starts by defining fiction plots as not true or not real stories with true/real elements in them. Or as a tale from the author’s im

agination with allusions to real people or events. Then, I guess that before I confirm or refute anything, it becomes imperative to take out the Larousse … but this is the translated version thus it is a Merriam Webster what I’ll be taking out the bookshelf. And maybe adding what is written in the Larousse to compare. First the Larousse[1].

Ficción. f. Creación de la imaginación: tu relato es una ficción. || Simulación.

Fiction. Feminine. Creation of the imagination: your story is fiction. !! Simulation.

Imaginación. s. m. Del verbo imaginar.

Imagination. masculine noun. From the verb to imagine.

Imaginar. v. t. Representar idealmente una cosa, crearla con la mente. || Crear, inventar: imaginar un sistema de propulsión. || Pensar, suponer: imaginar lo que uno habrá dicho. || ~V. pr. Figurarse: se imaginó que era un sabio.

Imagine. Transitive verb. To represent ideally a thing, to create it with the mind. !! To create, invent; imagine a propelling system. !! To think, suppose, imagine what one could have said. !! ~pronominal verb. To figure out: he imagined he was a wise man.

NOW THE MERRIAM WEBSTER

Fiction noun fic·tion ˈfik-shən

1 a : something invented by the imagination or feigned, specifically : an invented story … I’d found out that the story of the ailing son was pure fiction.—Andrew A. Rooney

b: fictitious literature (such as novels or short stories). She was renowned as a writer of fiction c : a work of fiction, especially : NOVEL Her latest work is a fiction set during the Civil War.

2 a : an assumption of a possibility as a fact irrespective of the question of its truth, a legal fiction b : a useful illusion or pretense. It was only a fiction of independence his mother gave him; he was almost totally under her power—G. A. Wagner

3: the action of feigning or of creating with the imagination. She engaged in fiction to escape painful realities.

imagination noun imag·i·na·tion i-ˌma-jə-ˈnā-shən

1 : the act or power of forming a mental image of something not present to the senses or never before wholly perceived in reality

2 a : creative ability b: ability to confront and deal with a problem : RESOURCEFULNESS use your imagination and get us out of here c : the thinking or active mind : INTEREST stories that fired the imagination

3a: a creation of the mind, especially : an idealized or poetic creation

b : fanciful or empty assumption

Imagine verb imag·ine i-ˈma-jən imagined; imagining i-ˈma-jə-niŋ -ˈmaj-nə- transitive verb

1: to form a mental image of (something not present). imagine accidents at every turn

2: SUPPOSE, GUESS. I imagine it will rain

3.: to form a notion of without sufficient basis : FANCY. imagines himself to be a charming conversationalist

4 archaic : PLAN, SCHEME intransitive verb

1: to use the imagination

2: BELIEVE sense 3 : to hold an opinion

Summarising, we have two completely different things: reality and fiction. Which are, in fact, not as different as Hilary Mantel (historical novel writer) would say. After all, History is written by historians. And historians have their own likes and dislikes, interests and disinterests.

They can perfectly omit half of the living population from the registry of provable and important facts since it does nothing more than… give birth[2].

It might seem untrue, but along the 5,000 years or more of human history (written human history); women do nothing more than being pretty, give birth to kings, marry kings or seduce them. And such a concept is a bogus fiction. But it is also… HiStory[3].

[1] My Spanish-Spanish mate undo hubbles of the speech.

[2] Note this idea ain’t mine. I heard it in a podcast called 100 women. Women History Hour and it verses on how the few or non-existent female Historians has created this data lacking which reflects a historical biased vision of the world. What I’m doing, is borrowing it to demonstrate that to divide what is “imaginary” or “fictitious” from what is “real” is not as simple and can´t be done just by saying the process is OBVIOUS. Reality is something we can discuss till we have no voice… I think. And considering I´m myself a woman, I should believe my feats as imaginary given this parameter of division.

[3] In Spanish, both history and story are spelled the same, thus the word iron. English wouldn’t allow a plot or story to be the same as History; at least in its spelling.