Truth is Stranger than Fiction prompts

Cathy C · Jun 18, 2013

It's been said that truth is stranger than fiction. The saying goes back at least as far as Mark Twain but the quote has been attributed to any number of people.

All of us have encountered things that, as writers, we KNOW we couldn't use in a novel because an editor would yank it right out as "unbelievable." It's no good arguing that it really happened. Unbelievable is unbelievable.

But there's nothing wrong with trying, is there? So I though it might be fun to start a thread of REAL things (not stuff you dream up, but stuff you can point to as fact) that you have to shake your head at---and get inspired to write.

It can be anything you've seen in the news or encountered in a corporate (albeit Dilbert-esque) cubicle, or lived through. I'll start:

WILKES-BARRE, Pa. - A man who apparently set fire to his trailer during a psychotic episode cannot sue police who failed to arrest him when he voiced plans to burn the place down, a federal judge ruled.

"Hey, it's not my fault I burned down my home, your honor! It's those rotten cops who didn't stop me when I said I was going to." :ROFL:

Who's next?

mirandashell · Jun 18, 2013

The one that always makes me laugh is the woman who phoned into a radio talk show and complained that she had hit a deer with her car 3 times in the last year so

'they should move the Deer Xing signs so the deer will cross the road somewhere else....'

Cracks me up everytime I think about it.

Liralen · Jun 18, 2013

Back when I did outside sales, one of my co-workers, who lived back in a holler, had to borrow one of the company cars for a few days.

It was winter, and she was driving home late. The road was narrow, a drop off on one side, a high bank on the other. It was pitch dark.

There was a huge THUD and the car stopped. The headlights went out. She couldn't see anything through the windshield -- just black.

After sitting there, the seconds stretching out as her heartbeat reverberated in her ears, she got her handgun out of her purse, hands trembling, adrenaline surging, opened the door and crept out of the car.

A huge black hog had taken a flyer through the fence on the bank above and landed on the hood of the car.

When pigs fly . . . timing is everything.

And yes, that is SO going to find its way into a story someday.

Lavern08 · Jun 18, 2013

I work at a CPA firm.

I mailed a tax return to a client with an Instruction Sheet attached that read, in part: Please sign your return on the second page and mail to the IRS in the enclosed envelope.

The client calls me and goes: I got the return you sent me and I see a sticky note with an arrow that says Sign Here. Where should I sign?

I am so not kidding. :Shrug:

talkwrite · Jun 18, 2013

I am a licensed court interpreter and one of the most common types of procedures we interpret is the car accident. I hear this same testimony at least once a year...from different people.

Attorney: How many lanes of traffic were there on the street you were driving?
Witness: Two.
Attorney: And what lane were you driving in?
Witness: The middle lane.

It is already in one of my short stories.

Truth is Stranger than Fiction prompts

Cathy C

Ooo! Shiny new cover!

mirandashell

Liralen

Miss Conceived

Lavern08

Sit Down, and Shut Up!

talkwrite

Passion in full bloom