Writing Blog Number 2

20250512 Autofiction

Autofiction

Following on from the last entry: "20250509 Using Real People In Fiction Pt 2" …

A few times I have made fun of Hulk Hogan’s autobiographies, for the sheer amount of bullshit that exists on their pages. I may also have mentioned Frank Dux and his alleged autobiography.
         But what if those lies were all a part of a plan, if they were deliberately told in the way they were as an artistic statement, not just because the author was a self-deluded egomaniac?
         Welcome to the world of Autofiction.

Okay, that is rather flippant. Autofiction is a serious recently developed genre where a person’s real lived experiences are mingled with fictional tales in order to tell a story, usually with a deep message. In fact, I have not come across one that did not have a barrow to push. Sorry, but that seems to be the way it is.
         Being as averse to message stories as I am, I generally find autofiction tedious.
         However, it is still a valid form of modern writing that I feel can be expanded beyond the simple message tale. And in April I attended an Autofiction online workshop.

Now, in Australia in the early 1990s, we had a woman named Helen Demidenko win a few prestigious awards with her book about a Ukrainian refugee, based on her own lived experiences. There was a problem, however. Her real name was Helen Darville, she was not a Ukranian refugee nor did she work with refugees nor was she related to any or even know any (possibly). She made the whole thing up based on some stories she’d heard… and when she got caught out, the literary world in this country went ballistic. To this day she has not been forgiven.
         If she’d done this 30 years later, then she would have probably claimed it was a work of autofiction, and she would still be writing award-winning (and boring – the book was dull) books.

Autofiction is generally considered a seamless mixture of personal history with fictional storytelling. Most of the time it is used to explore sexuality, identity, displacement, cultural lore, sense of belonging or a societal negative. Real people are mixed with fictional aspects, and the reader is left in no doubt that this is a work of fiction, but some stories might be true, some people are real while some have been created,places could be real, made up or renamed… and yet, without exception, the emotions are definitely personal.
         When it comes to some of the issues I have mentioned previously when using real people in works of fiction, the autobiographical aspect can (and is designed to) blur the lines here. I don’t think it has been tested in court (at least, not that I could find), so… not sure here how this would be approached.

From the worskshop, there are a few things a writer will need to do if looking at a work of Autofiction:
1) Be prepared to explore memories which might not hold true for all participants. While this is true for all autobiography, the lack of recall matters less here, and can create conflict.
2) Balance truth and fiction without relying too heavily on one or the other; this is probably the greatest issue when trying to write this style. Is it just a fake autobiography? Or is it an exaggerated real autobiography? Or do the made-up bits really matter and help the tale? Tough line to walk.
3) Be prepared to explain just what it is you are writing, because it is so new. This includes to potential publishers.
4) Remember the author is the most important character in the story; it is a form of autobiography, after all, even if it is mixed with fiction to make a point.
5) Using it to show something that the writer feels needs to be shown should still reflect some of the writer’s lived experiences, and not just be made up wholecloth.
         For example, it would be a complete work of fiction for me to write a book as if I was an African woman living in Canada; I have no lived experience in that. It could be Autofiction for me to write about being treated like pond scum by American companies and American people for being an atheist, adding extra tales to my own lived experience.

As an aside, sometimes the narrator’s name and the name of the author are different. This does help make the work more fictional, but it gets really confusing in this case.

I will add here that Autofiction is sometimes seen as a form of experimental writing, and I can see that. As such, publishers are still dubious about it, though more and more works are being published.

So, in essence: Autofiction is a life story written as a work of semi-fiction with the author appearing as a/the main character in the narrative, drawing from a lived life experience while at the same time incorporating fictional elements, characters, and events, to give voice to a complex societal issue.

Might be a new genre worth considering…