Just Making Things Up

Authenticity is key to creating a compelling story. Without it, the story falls flat -- or worse, the end user knows more than the author and can correct them. Oof.

The constant research into the area where FTS takes place is an effort to make the piece feel authentic. As I noted in the previous post, the area's accent is central to its success. Pandemics and politics have kept me from finishing this piece, but I will. I must.

I replayed my two-hour conversation with six local intellectuals. One topic that surfaced was how people are prone to making things up -- and how central locating the facts is to a project's accuracy and authenticity. One of the scholars noted that people often do not intentionally invent things; they simply mix up information with stories, memories, or legends.

He told the story of a person who was said to have studied medicine at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Michigan. The local newspaper was about to dedicate a story on his life. That is, until the facts were checked. The Mayo Clinic registrar did have a record of someone with that name enrolled in the medical school there, but at a different time -- twenty years later, in fact. Then, when a pack of envelopes was carefully pored over, invoices from the Rochester Institute of Technology showed that the person had actually studied radiology in New York State.

Discovery adds a layer of research -- and irony -- to my project, since many of the places I visited have been transformed over ten decades. The journey itself adds the layer of authenticity that completes the bridge.