# 1.1.2 What can you see?

Figure 2

Fiction thrives on elements that are factual or seem factual; it traditionally contains much information which appears real and normal.

What did you find from writing the fact and fiction paragraphs, and from reading any others?

You may have seen or heard game shows with a similar premise – panel members talk imaginatively and often comically about themselves, or an object or a moment from history, trying to smuggle through facts that the other panellists don’t notice. The fun thing is that the truthful things are often the elements that sound most invented. But common factual details are of use in stories too.

Writing what you know is all important to the would-be fiction writer. Your source material doesn’t have to be exotic, or fantastical. The most mundane details from everyday lives can provide the most fruitful source for stories. And sometimes the mundane mixed with the fantastical can be amusing too.

OpenLearn - Start writing fiction: characters and stories
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