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Everyone knows that authors make things up. That’s rather what we’re for. And everyone knows that authors give themselves names – for all kinds of reasons. Some of us do it for privacy reasons – very much a motivation for smut writers. Some of us do it because our real names are too bland, or don’t work. (My current legal name is Bryn Brown, and I promise you I’m not putting that on the cover of a book.) We may do it to sound more romantic, more mysterious and authorish. J.K Rowling used her initials because a female name on a children’s book would put off boys and she wanted to appeal to them too.
So how far is it ok to go? How much of a fictional life is it ok to invent to go with your fictional work? If you’re yet another stay at home mum whose real life revolves around childcare and housework, how on earth are you going to talk yourself up to sell books? We all know it’s easier to sell books if readers find you interesting as a person, so what do you do, if you aren’t? At what point, if any, does is stop being fiction and become lies?
Part of the reason for bringing this up, is having heard that a couple of apparently gay authors have turned out to be women. They were using the J.K Rowling technique – ambiguous names, but they both blogged about their supposedly real lives as gay men. I’m curious to know how readers feel about this. Most of the time we can’t know much about the real lives of authors. The famous ones get stalked by the press, but most don’t. Most of the time, all you have to go on is what the author tells you. And authors…. Make stuff up. It’s such a ‘given’ that I’ve found that in legal situations my ability to tell the truth has been called into question in the past, simply on the grounds of my being an author. Not that the judge seemed to take that seriously, but even so, it was pretty scary.
Bryn is a Welsh name, and traditionally male. There are plenty of female Bryns, Brynnes and other variations out there, it’s not just me. And I’ve always been open about being a girl, and that I’m writing all kinds of things because it interests me to do so. I’m moderately open about my real life. Enough that I don’t feel I’ve misled anyone deliberately, but at the same time I hold my privacy where I need to and I don’t compromise anyone else. Even the one or two who really deserve to be publically named and shamed.
I think that what we claim about our real lives does affect how people perceive us. Are we authentic? Are we offering an insight that someone who’s not done it for real wouldn’t have? Are you then going to take what we say as valid how-to information and act on it? People do take real life inspiration from fiction, which makes me feel an obligation to try and get things right. There is also the issue of who we have the right to speak for. That can be about gender preference, but also race, religion, life experience. To claim authority on anything that isn’t ours, is just unethical. You can write about anything, but there’s a difference between that, and claiming ownership of it.
I know most of the lyd authors. Some of them I’ve met in person, or I’ve talked to via skype. Others have met each other too. We’re all real, and confident in each other’s realness. I know Cain is a big, black, gay guy, not a woman who’s playing at it, because I’ve heard his voice. The authority that comes from being real, matters to me. So, do you want your authors to be real people, or is it ok for an author to be a work of fiction too?
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