Fictional Biography

I’ve been having a non-fiction envy moment. Some writers can move from fiction to non-fiction with equal ease, but I have a real problem with it. I think its because I’m not really an expert on anything in particular so I don’t feel qualified in writing a book about something that interests me. I haven’t had an ultra interesting career or life filled with tragedy or broken any records along my way. So what could I have to write about that would be interesting in a non-fictional book? Well, nothing.

I have always liked aviation. Over the years I have collected a considerable library of aviation pioneers, fighter pilots and military men. But even though I love the subject and can talk about it with some knowledge and conviction, I still don’t feel like I have the authority to write about it. But man would it be fun to write a biography of a favorite pilot.

Turns out the one thing I do know an awful lot about is my own imagination. I’ve lived with it and the universe where most of my SF takes place, my entire adult life. You could say that I was an expert in my Galaxy Collision universe. So why not write about someone in that universe? Someone who was modeled after a real life pilot. Why not write a biography of a famous pilot in my fictional universe. Now that I can do with conviction. I won’t have to research it much, because it will all be made up. Sure I will have to stick to the already established canon that I have created in short stories and novels, but that’s okay, it really just ads to the world building verisimilitude.

A writer usually creates elaborate background stories on characters that they develop and so this will be no different, just a lot more detailed. The trick is to make the moc-bio so interesting that people will read it like they read a normal fiction book and come away just as satisfied. For that I think it needs to be written in first person and the story arch must show the person’s entire life as if he were the hero in his own story. This appears to be the formula for all popular biographies of famous people.

At this time the idea has a new project created for it and a rough outline of chapter titles that tell the story of a starfighter test pilot who helped test and then fly some of the first fighters used in what will become a millennial conflict. The person the moc-bio will be about? Red Allen. You can read a short story about one of his adventures on my Scribd page.

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