THREE WOMEN FOUND ALIVE--REALITY IS STRANGER THAN FICTION

"Why shouldn't truth be stranger than fiction? Fiction, after all, has to make sense."
Mark Twain

The news today confirms the truth that life is stranger than fiction. If you've read the novel,  ROOM, by Emma Donague, no doubt, like me, you loved it but felt that the plot strained credulity. The idea that a woman could be held hostage by a monster for years,  in an inhabited neighborhood, and even give birth to a child during captivity seemed a bit of a stretch. Yet, apparently, three young women have been held for decades, undiscovered, and no doubt given up for dead by people who love them.

Now all the questions will bombard the victims: "Why didn't they escape? Why didn't they band together?" etc. etc. Only time and the process of investigation will reveal the truth.

Like many writers, I  am often inspired by news stories that intrigue and obsess me, sometimes using the skeleton of the story as in my current work-in-progress which involves the kidnapping of two sisters. I've struggled to make the situation believable, how they are targeted and how they manage to invent weapons from nothing to aid their escape.

In fiction, it is important to stick to a plot that is believable, probable, possible. Real life obviously doesn't have to follow that rule.