The True Story

As mentioned in a few earlier posts, the research part, its due diligence, is a crucial element in the telling of an accurate, but still interesting story, It deftly explains why we categorize works of literature, be they serious, formal, high-brow or their fanciful, casual and blue-collar counterparts, into two distinct groups: Fiction or non. The made-up (often to great entertainment) and the historically accurate and precise.

But leave it to Hollywood to come up with a hybrid. A little bit of one and some of the other, and not necessarily in that order, ratio or scale. As long as the following disclaimer runs (after the Interpol announcement that video pirating is not a victimless crime):

BASED ON A TRUE STORY.

Seriously. What story ISN’T? Just be sure to change the actual names in order to protect the innocent and avoid any copyright infringement and/or privacy, libel or just plain old slander laws. This entire issue was magnificently explored in Tim Burton's phenomenal Big Fish. If you haven’t already done so, stream it tonight, keeping in mind all along that it is based on a true story.

The path, that gritty, messy, treacherous, utterly magical process by which we move, sometimes gracefully, sometimes clumsily from inception to completion, is always in first person, active and now. It is a process with a life of its own. It is a living, growing thing. Like a child under our care it needs as much love as water. It needs constant attention, discipline and the space to grown, flourish and make mistakes. This is how our characters learn. As is often said of the process, the story, the opus, it is our baby.

My baby is in the romantic phase. I am fantasizing over the possibility that its (I don’t want to give a gender just yet) future mother has caught my eye and heart and that something miraculous could be on the horizon. But, like Mr. Everyman, I have seen the possibility and must act true to my hard-wiring and move on the impulse. I have seen this baby evolve from the ‘what if’ to the ‘what now?’ It is like fanning through a flip deck seeing every year pass, until that magic day of reckoning ends the time-lapse, the project is done, the work complete and the baby grown to maturity and competency.

In today’s romantic phase, research, we found a few interesting details that will shape the character of my two big guns. Protagonist One and Protagonist Two. They will travel very different paths to arrive at the same point eventually arriving with the same truth after months of agonizing introspection, and make the same decision. They will meet in a head-on, face-to-face mano-a-mano confrontation with the game (the war) on the line.

My research, intended to provide an outline for the rhetorical metamorphosis each will experience, traveled east and west. The eastern trek landed in 17th century Japan, where we explored the Samurai code of Bushido and the crafting of the katana, the sword of the Samurai.

Back west, we sailed to Pearl Harbor on Dec 7, 1941.

At Pearl we found that the USS Arizona, sunk within the first 15 minutes of the surprise attack, went down with 1,177 crew members aboard, junior sailors and Marines. There were three that share my surname and one was from California, my home state. Nine hundred of the crew are still buried at sea and remain in the hull of the Arizona. The Pearl Harbor Memorial is built atop the wreckage (see photo) but does not touch it. There is a direct association between the Arizona and my story, a dot I will connect as historical reference and motivation for Protagonist One as his cousin was one of the sailors. In that sentence the first fact is accurate and the second fictitious. I am not sure how important that is at this point. But I am quite sure that by the end of the story I will know without question.

The eastward pilgrimage took us into the mindset of the Samurai and their code, known as Bushido. Here are the 8 ‘virtues’ it ‘commands’ of its followers:

1) Righteousness
2) Heroic courage
3) Benevolence and compassion
4) Respect
5) Honesty
6) Honor
7) Duty & loyalty
8) Self control

My guys will both be in the place and time, although separated by thousands of miles, where those traits, these facts and that motivation will shape their thinking, and in turn, allow them the presence to convert their sacred knowledge into secular wisdom and do the ‘number six thing’, the honorable.

In the heat of battle, under extreme stress and with the eyes of the world upon them.

All not simply based on a true story, it IS the true story.