Writing a novel about
issues such as child trafficking and prostitution is risky, to say the least;
but sometimes in order to get a point across you need to tell a story that is
so unbelievable it creates the same curiosity that causes people to stand in
the path of a tornado. They have to see it, no matter what the consequences,
because only then can they truly understand its power.
But then comes the
tricky part. After all, how do you turn real life into real fiction? To start
with it has to be believable, which is something, surely, a fiction writer
shouldn’t have to face. Fiction, by definition, is the type of
book or story which is written about imaginary characters and events and not
based on real people and facts. So how was I to make a made-up story, with
fictional characters, seem real enough to invoke the kind of response I wanted,
without inviting criticism for being contrived? After all, it’s not just a
story, it’s a real thing that happens to real people, so whatever I write has
to be, well, real. You see my problem?
On the other side is my propensity for adventure.
I’m a sucker for those thrillers that pull you breathlessly from one scene to
the next, never quite allowing you the sweet taste of conclusion. A story that
manipulates the realms of possibility to the point that anything goes – there is no reason why that girl can’t leap twenty
foot from a balcony, land on a car roof, get to her feet, and run; or swim
through shark-infested waters with a severed limb without getting chomped.
Because it’s a fictional story and no one cares, as long as the baddies get
caught, the hero survives, and they all live happily ever after.
But that happily-ever-after is a problem for me.
Give the reader a happy ending and they get to close the book with their
conscience clear. But as a writer who has researched the truth about child trafficking and relived some of the horrors, I don’t think the reader should
get off so lightly. I want the story to stay with them long after they have
turned out the light.
So where does that leave me? On the one hand there
is the authenticity that accompanies a real-life issue, on the other is the
poetic licence afforded a fiction writer. But perhaps putting the two together
gives me something truly powerful. A boundless imagination is the gift I
possess, but what wraps it in a neat bow and delivers it to the reader is the
reality. And this, I hope, is what will pull them into
the path of the tornado.
