6 Tips for Writing Fiction Based on True Events

This is going to be last post for today.

I get questions from writers about taking true events, mostly true personal events, and using them to create a fiction. Falling is an article from Writers Digest that can help answer your questions.


6 Tips for Writing Fiction Based on True Events

Brian A. Klems Online Editor WritersDigest.com @BrianKlems

Today's guest post is by Lorie Ann Grover, author of Hit. 

You are there. You see it. You're a writer, so, of course, you want to write about it. Now what? Writing fiction springing from an actual event, maybe one of your own personal experiences, requires a finesse for your reader's benefit, your friends', your enemies, and yourself. There is a way to handle the truth because you'll begin as if you are wearing kid gloves, but suddenly they will plump into boxing gloves, and before you know it, you are ready to deliver that punch right to your beloved, old auntie's face.

Note: Last chance to buy our Elements of Fiction Writing Premium Collection, which is 14 great resources for one unbeatable price. Buy now before it goes away on December 31! 


1. Begin with the truth.

Truth is stranger than fiction, so there is certainly much to mine. Each of my contemporary novels sprang off the pages of my own life. Consider writing that first draft close to what happened, what you saw, and what you felt. Capture it.  Read more... 

Brian A. Klems Online Editor WritersDigest.com @BrianKlems

New Literary Agents To Query!

Happy Martin Luther King Jr. Day!

Today I have the names of two new literary agent to query. I got them from a recent email letter from GUIDE TO LITERARY AGENTS.

2 New Agents Seeking Clients NOW  Click on any name below to see the full mini-profile on the GLA Blog (with submission instructions). Good luck querying!   1. Amanda Panitch of Lippincott Massie McQuilkin She is seeking: Young adult and middle grade only. In particular, she'd love to find a high fantasy set in a non-Western inspired setting. Other concepts she'd love to see in her inbox include a dark psychological thriller, a quirky mystery, a gorgeous literary contemporary, historical fiction set in a place or time not often explored in fiction, or anything featuring food as a main element. She is also drawn to generational spaceships, unreliable narrators, magical realism, the pre-Columbian Americas, the Amazon, close sibling relationships, and slow-burning romances. 2. Kirsten Carleton of Waxman Leavell Literary Agency Kirsten is seeking: Upmarket young adult, speculative, and literary fiction with strong characters and storytelling. She's particularly interested in novels that bend and blur genres; literary takes on high concept worldbuilding; diverse characters in stories that are not just about diversity; antiheroes she find herself rooting for; characters with drive and passion; girls and women in STEM fields; settings outside the US/Europe; well-researched historical settings; YA noir/thriller/mystery; stories that introduces her to a new subculture and makes her feel like a native. She is not interested in horror, romance, erotica, poetry, or picture books.