Memories and Fiction by Allison Symes

Image Credits:  Images created in Book Brush using Pixabay images.

Memories may come into fiction more often than you might think. There is an obvious link between memories and memoir writing but fiction, surely not? 

 

Think back to what you love reading and what drew you to write at all. Were you inspired by something you remember reading? I’ve always had a great love for the classic fairytales and they continue to influence a lot of what I write. 

As for crime stories, how often is the culprit caught by the detective thanks to something they forgot or the culprit ends up contradicting their own alibi, having forgotten to ensure they keep their story straight?

Those writing historical fiction must still remember to get their history right as they weave their own stories around this. It also needs to be remembered the characters in the story cannot know how the history will play out unless they are referring to something in their past.

So memories play an important, if sometimes understated, role in fiction then. But how can writers use this to help improve their characterisation? 

One simple answer is to give your character a memory which has direct relevance to the story they are in. 

For example, if my flash piece shows a character hesitating over a choice of which coat to buy, I might get them to remember an older relative, no longer around, scolding them for being extravagant and my character cannot quite forget this whenever they treat themselves. My story here inevitably would be about how they overcome the negative connotations they’re carrying.

Memories can also have a direct impact on character behaviour and, as as result, fuel your story. If you have a character who is the “class clown”, what led them to decide this is the way they should be? There will be something to explore behind that. Also does the “class clown” act go wrong? Or can another character see right through it and call the other character out on it? What consequences could that lead to? Again, you can see the beginnings of story ideas here.

I sometimes write what I call slice of life stories (which work well in flash fiction as I think these work best when kept short. They have more emotional impact due to the brevity). Here, I will have a character look back at their life and share with the reader their memories of a changing point. 

In my They Don’t Understand (From Light to Dark and Back Again) my character reveals a twist at the end as he goes over his life, briefly, with his wife. It should, in my view, lead to even more empathy for my lead character here. I found I was feeling rather emotional writing the piece (and that is a good sign).

 

Readers latch on to character memories for the excellent reason we all have our special memories we all treasure. So why shouldn’t our characters have theirs?