Fictionalizing

Fictionalizing is the process of turning real events, people, or places into fiction by altering facts, inventing details, or creating composite characters. It sits between strict fiction and nonfiction and is common in novels, screenplays, plays, and other narrative media. Writers may keep the general outline of a real event while changing timelines, motives, or outcomes, or they may invent scenes and dialogue to illuminate themes or character.

Techniques include amalgamating multiple individuals into a single composite, compressing or expanding timelines, imagining inner thoughts or conversations, and developing plots inspired by real occurrences. This can produce a fictionalized memoir or a non fiction novel that seeks emotional or thematic truth as much as factual detail.

Purposes vary: to examine moral questions, to explore social context, to preserve memory, or to engage readers through narrative drama. Fictionalizing can make complex history accessible and relatable, but it also raises questions about accuracy and responsibility.

Ethical and legal considerations include consent of real persons or estates, potential defamation, privacy concerns, and rights of publicity. Disclaimers and careful sourcing are common in some contexts, while other works treat the material as invention. Jurisdictional rules about artistic license and the boundary between fact and fiction influence practice.

Critics discuss whether factual distortion undermines trust or whether narrative truth justifies it. Related forms include autofiction, historiographic metafiction, and the use of composite characters in biographical fiction.