The Writer's Id Forum Fiction and Nonfiction

As writers, able to elaborate and re-elaborate for the sake of style, able to re-create ourselves, able to rephrase, rehash and reshape things, able to claim bias in perspective, able to hide under a veil of anonymity . . . what happens to the line between fiction and nonfiction?

Consider reality TV - all scenes are edited together to form a story - practically scripted and molded . . . Consider Photoshop and reforming photographs to create a totally different person (Watch this: Photo-editing with Photoshop . . .

What has technology done for our sense of reality? Is it such a big thing if non-fiction loses its foothold? Was it ever really "a true story" in the first place?

(Saturday morning mind wanderings . . . please, share your thoughts. New contest coming soon!)

Any thoughts??? I think we're all living in our own little fictional/nonfictional worlds . . . I don't know why we tend to go nuts when an author says she'll tell the truth and she doesn't. Big deal. If they are entertaining the audience . . . Maybe stories that are partial truths need a new word - One can never recall their childhood to a "T," I would think, and surely improvisation is needed every once in a while (and that's okay!) . . . but, then I could see the negative effects . . . Truths - or at least the closest to truths that we can get - are important for learning historical lessons, etc. . . . of course, will we ever learn anything?

I read an article in NYT this week about the "foodies" around Berkshire, Harvard, etc. (I think this was the place). How these people surround their lives around entertaining and impressing guests - creating cultured gourmet foods, never dreaming of purchasing olive oils in any other place but Greece and serving the most delictable, curious meals on plates found in the most hipster/rustic/smalltown flea markets (making sure the stuff for the party has a "story" attached to it anyway - down to the last ivory-handled fork) . . . One guy said he was "mortified" at having to serve his guests store-bought tortillas. Geez. Maybe this will inspire someone to write a story or short poem . . . Because there is a point where we touch with truths and things like parsley sprigs and faux-pas friends get misinterpretted . . . or maybe, for all reason and being, I have no right to attempt to say what "truths" are in the first place or to even begin to claim "misinterpretations" . . .

Not to mention that reality shows are scripted. A lot of people try to deny this. "They're watching REALITY there on their TV, by god!" But you see the jobs advertised for on sites...and the reality writers are creating a stink, trying to get equal representation by the WGA, the guild that governs movie and TV writing.

I have ALWAYS blurred the lines between fiction and reporting. I seek out publications where I can do this. Usually hip urban weeklies (and I've written for about every one on the West Coast). It's just more fun creating what looks like journalism, but is actually a creative construct. (There are other views on this)