Fisho's Frolics

[Media Park]

i want this book!

[fisho mcspaz]

Fisho, how do you feel about people in your life misinterpreting your fiction as fact? Writers draw on their own life experiences for substance, but just as one sentence might drawn from an exact moment, the next sentence could be pure creativity - do you worry that family and friends might interpret it all too literally?

This is definitely an issue for me as some of the incidents in my novel are based on things that actually happened. One chapter was published as a short story last year - I actually wrote the story first and the novel came out of it. I got the idea for the story from an incident that took place during Aldinga v Reynella in 2007. Aldinga were leading at quarter time - this is a team that usually flogs them by at least 20 goals - and the Reynella boys were a bit rattled and started a few fights. Meanwhile the under-18s were all down by the southern goals drinking Cougar out of a funnel (jeez) and they started getting really loud and obnoxious. I don't know what they said to the Reynella full-forward but he cracked it, screamed 'COME OUT HERE AND SAY THAT, YOU LITTLE C**TS!' and got sent off the ground because, as the umpire said, you could hear him all the way up the other end. Although the teams, players etc. in my story are all fictional, the event described is real - I wrote it almost exactly as I recalled it.

(N.B. - Generally if you're going to incorporate real life in a work of fiction, you've got to consider all the ethics involved, and usually the wisest move is NOT to represent real people. You know how a lot of books begin with 'This is a work of fiction. Any similarity to real people or events is coincidental...' This is purely to cover your own arse so you don't get sued for libel. However, I think that something like a football game is an exception. When a whole bunch of spectators are watching you, your story becomes their story too in a way. So I had absolutely no compunction in recreating those events as truthfully as I remembered them.)

Moving on - I do worry about people interpreting my work literally. Absolutely I worry. I mean - here I'm writing a novel about a football team of chronic losers, and Mr McSpaz plays for Aldinga. You'd be blind not to see a comparison there! But the warning bells didn't really sound until my grandpa asked him 'So, are you one of the characters?' and he said 'Yeah, I think so.' Whereas I would have said no. I won't put real people in my books - it's too awkward and also constricting when I'm trying to develop my characters further. But evidently Mr McSpaz had seen himself in it somewhere. I'm hoping it wasn't the bloke who got paro and pulled off all his clothes and ran naked around the oval after the game.

The real problem for me with my friends and family thinking I'm writing about them, is not the idea that I might offend them or hurt their feelings. All I can do is say, 'No, I did not use you as a character in my book.' From there it is up to them if they believe me or not. What worries me is that, if people do imagine that a particular character is based on them, they'll misinterpret the whole narrative. I know that if I was reading a book and then found out it was about someone I knew, I'd view it from a completely different angle.

But I guess it's inevitable that I am going to incorporate some elements of real people into my characters. One of my mates will say something and I'll think, hey, that's awesome! I'll have to write that down.

[fisho mcspaz]

I'll give you an example: my main character, Jase, is playing in the last footy match of the minor round and his opponent keeps eluding him. Finally Jase, out of frustration, tries to put him off with the old 'your missus was a good root' sledge - not realising that she's dead from cancer - and when the other bloke tells him, 'You prick, my wife died two years ago', he responds with 'Well, I reckon that's why she didn't put up much of a fight then.' In order to get away with writing that I had to a) let Jase's opponent give him a good dusting-up before the umpire stepped in; b) get Jase to make a sincere apology to him before the tribunal.

fisho, are you using real town and football club names in your novel or have you made them up?

Made them up. All of them. Too many ethical issues involved if I used real places. The story is set around the east Adelaide Hills/Murraylands region, and the towns etc. are based on towns in that area, but only in a general sense. No one's going to think 'Hey, that's our main street!' or 'I've been to that pub.' At least I hope they won't.

[the big bang]

Fisho, how do you feel about people in your life misinterpreting your fiction as fact? Writers draw on their own life experiences for substance, but just as one sentence might drawn from an exact moment, the next sentence could be pure creativity - do you worry that family and friends might interpret it all too literally?

This is definitely an issue for me as some of the incidents in my novel are based on things that actually happened. One chapter was published as a short story last year - I actually wrote the story first and the novel came out of it. I got the idea for the story from an incident that took place during Aldinga v Reynella in 2007. Aldinga were leading at quarter time - this is a team that usually flogs them by at least 20 goals - and the Reynella boys were a bit rattled and started a few fights. Meanwhile the under-18s were all down by the southern goals drinking Cougar out of a funnel (jeez) and they started getting really loud and obnoxious. I don't know what they said to the Reynella full-forward but he cracked it, screamed 'COME OUT HERE AND SAY THAT, YOU LITTLE C**TS!' and got sent off the ground because, as the umpire said, you could hear him all the way up the other end. Although the teams, players etc. in my story are all fictional, the event described is real - I wrote it almost exactly as I recalled it.

(N.B. - Generally if you're going to incorporate real life in a work of fiction, you've got to consider all the ethics involved, and usually the wisest move is NOT to represent real people. You know how a lot of books begin with 'This is a work of fiction. Any similarity to real people or events is coincidental...' This is purely to cover your own arse so you don't get sued for libel. However, I think that something like a football game is an exception. When a whole bunch of spectators are watching you, your story becomes their story too in a way. So I had absolutely no compunction in recreating those events as truthfully as I remembered them.)

Moving on - I do worry about people interpreting my work literally. Absolutely I worry. I mean - here I'm writing a novel about a football team of chronic losers, and Mr McSpaz plays for Aldinga. You'd be blind not to see a comparison there! But the warning bells didn't really sound until my grandpa asked him 'So, are you one of the characters?' and he said 'Yeah, I think so.' Whereas I would have said no. I won't put real people in my books - it's too awkward and also constricting when I'm trying to develop my characters further. But evidently Mr McSpaz had seen himself in it somewhere. I'm hoping it wasn't the bloke who got paro and pulled off all his clothes and ran naked around the oval after the game.

The real problem for me with my friends and family thinking I'm writing about them, is not the idea that I might offend them or hurt their feelings. All I can do is say, 'No, I did not use you as a character in my book.' From there it is up to them if they believe me or not. What worries me is that, if people do imagine that a particular character is based on them, they'll misinterpret the whole narrative. I know that if I was reading a book and then found out it was about someone I knew, I'd view it from a completely different angle.

But I guess it's inevitable that I am going to incorporate some elements of real people into my characters. One of my mates will say something and I'll think, hey, that's awesome! I'll have to write that down.

so mr. mcspaz didnt get a gig, but i clearly did! not sure weather to be happy or worried!!

[fisho mcspaz]

Fisho, how do you feel about people in your life misinterpreting your fiction as fact? Writers draw on their own life experiences for substance, but just as one sentence might drawn from an exact moment, the next sentence could be pure creativity - do you worry that family and friends might interpret it all too literally?

This is definitely an issue for me as some of the incidents in my novel are based on things that actually happened. One chapter was published as a short story last year - I actually wrote the story first and the novel came out of it. I got the idea for the story from an incident that took place during Aldinga v Reynella in 2007. Aldinga were leading at quarter time - this is a team that usually flogs them by at least 20 goals - and the Reynella boys were a bit rattled and started a few fights. Meanwhile the under-18s were all down by the southern goals drinking Cougar out of a funnel (jeez) and they started getting really loud and obnoxious. I don't know what they said to the Reynella full-forward but he cracked it, screamed 'COME OUT HERE AND SAY THAT, YOU LITTLE C**TS!' and got sent off the ground because, as the umpire said, you could hear him all the way up the other end. Although the teams, players etc. in my story are all fictional, the event described is real - I wrote it almost exactly as I recalled it.

(N.B. - Generally if you're going to incorporate real life in a work of fiction, you've got to consider all the ethics involved, and usually the wisest move is NOT to represent real people. You know how a lot of books begin with 'This is a work of fiction. Any similarity to real people or events is coincidental...' This is purely to cover your own arse so you don't get sued for libel. However, I think that something like a football game is an exception. When a whole bunch of spectators are watching you, your story becomes their story too in a way. So I had absolutely no compunction in recreating those events as truthfully as I remembered them.)

Moving on - I do worry about people interpreting my work literally. Absolutely I worry. I mean - here I'm writing a novel about a football team of chronic losers, and Mr McSpaz plays for Aldinga. You'd be blind not to see a comparison there! But the warning bells didn't really sound until my grandpa asked him 'So, are you one of the characters?' and he said 'Yeah, I think so.' Whereas I would have said no. I won't put real people in my books - it's too awkward and also constricting when I'm trying to develop my characters further. But evidently Mr McSpaz had seen himself in it somewhere. I'm hoping it wasn't the bloke who got paro and pulled off all his clothes and ran naked around the oval after the game.

The real problem for me with my friends and family thinking I'm writing about them, is not the idea that I might offend them or hurt their feelings. All I can do is say, 'No, I did not use you as a character in my book.' From there it is up to them if they believe me or not. What worries me is that, if people do imagine that a particular character is based on them, they'll misinterpret the whole narrative. I know that if I was reading a book and then found out it was about someone I knew, I'd view it from a completely different angle.

But I guess it's inevitable that I am going to incorporate some elements of real people into my characters. One of my mates will say something and I'll think, hey, that's awesome! I'll have to write that down.

so mr. mcspaz didnt get a gig, but i clearly did! not sure weather to be happy or worried!!

Well as it happens, the paro naked guy ends up getting drafted to the AFL...

[AFLflyer]

" and the Reynella boys were a bit rattled and started a few fights. Meanwhile the under-18s were all down by the southern goals drinking Cougar out of a funnel (jeez) and they started getting really loud and obnoxious. I don't know what they said to the Reynella full-forward but he cracked it, screamed 'COME OUT HERE AND SAY THAT, YOU LITTLE C**TS!' and got sent off the ground because, as the umpire said, you could hear him all the way up the other end."

Haha Milo , he would make a halirous fictional character!

enjoy your stuff also fisho, keep it coming.

ps - couldn't see that darts phone number today in the club (Reynella) you were taliking about?

[the big bang]

Fisho, how do you feel about people in your life misinterpreting your fiction as fact? Writers draw on their own life experiences for substance, but just as one sentence might drawn from an exact moment, the next sentence could be pure creativity - do you worry that family and friends might interpret it all too literally?

This is definitely an issue for me as some of the incidents in my novel are based on things that actually happened. One chapter was published as a short story last year - I actually wrote the story first and the novel came out of it. I got the idea for the story from an incident that took place during Aldinga v Reynella in 2007. Aldinga were leading at quarter time - this is a team that usually flogs them by at least 20 goals - and the Reynella boys were a bit rattled and started a few fights. Meanwhile the under-18s were all down by the southern goals drinking Cougar out of a funnel (jeez) and they started getting really loud and obnoxious. I don't know what they said to the Reynella full-forward but he cracked it, screamed 'COME OUT HERE AND SAY THAT, YOU LITTLE C**TS!' and got sent off the ground because, as the umpire said, you could hear him all the way up the other end. Although the teams, players etc. in my story are all fictional, the event described is real - I wrote it almost exactly as I recalled it.

(N.B. - Generally if you're going to incorporate real life in a work of fiction, you've got to consider all the ethics involved, and usually the wisest move is NOT to represent real people. You know how a lot of books begin with 'This is a work of fiction. Any similarity to real people or events is coincidental...' This is purely to cover your own arse so you don't get sued for libel. However, I think that something like a football game is an exception. When a whole bunch of spectators are watching you, your story becomes their story too in a way. So I had absolutely no compunction in recreating those events as truthfully as I remembered them.)

Moving on - I do worry about people interpreting my work literally. Absolutely I worry. I mean - here I'm writing a novel about a football team of chronic losers, and Mr McSpaz plays for Aldinga. You'd be blind not to see a comparison there! But the warning bells didn't really sound until my grandpa asked him 'So, are you one of the characters?' and he said 'Yeah, I think so.' Whereas I would have said no. I won't put real people in my books - it's too awkward and also constricting when I'm trying to develop my characters further. But evidently Mr McSpaz had seen himself in it somewhere. I'm hoping it wasn't the bloke who got paro and pulled off all his clothes and ran naked around the oval after the game.

The real problem for me with my friends and family thinking I'm writing about them, is not the idea that I might offend them or hurt their feelings. All I can do is say, 'No, I did not use you as a character in my book.' From there it is up to them if they believe me or not. What worries me is that, if people do imagine that a particular character is based on them, they'll misinterpret the whole narrative. I know that if I was reading a book and then found out it was about someone I knew, I'd view it from a completely different angle.

But I guess it's inevitable that I am going to incorporate some elements of real people into my characters. One of my mates will say something and I'll think, hey, that's awesome! I'll have to write that down.

so mr. mcspaz didnt get a gig, but i clearly did! not sure weather to be happy or worried!!

Well as it happens, the paro naked guy ends up getting drafted to the AFL...

excellent! can i go to collingwood please?!?!

not just coz i love them.

but because i'm not a good traveller.

4 interstate trips a year is my max.

[A Mum]

Maybe safooty.net could get a 'gig' in this book

[Dogwatcher]

This site gets enough negative press as it is AM

[spell_check]

Fisho, how do you feel about people in your life misinterpreting your fiction as fact? Writers draw on their own life experiences for substance, but just as one sentence might drawn from an exact moment, the next sentence could be pure creativity - do you worry that family and friends might interpret it all too literally?

This is definitely an issue for me as some of the incidents in my novel are based on things that actually happened. One chapter was published as a short story last year - I actually wrote the story first and the novel came out of it. I got the idea for the story from an incident that took place during Aldinga v Reynella in 2007. Aldinga were leading at quarter time - this is a team that usually flogs them by at least 20 goals - and the Reynella boys were a bit rattled and started a few fights. Meanwhile the under-18s were all down by the southern goals drinking Cougar out of a funnel (jeez) and they started getting really loud and obnoxious. I don't know what they said to the Reynella full-forward but he cracked it, screamed 'COME OUT HERE AND SAY THAT, YOU LITTLE C**TS!' and got sent off the ground because, as the umpire said, you could hear him all the way up the other end. Although the teams, players etc. in my story are all fictional, the event described is real - I wrote it almost exactly as I recalled it.

(N.B. - Generally if you're going to incorporate real life in a work of fiction, you've got to consider all the ethics involved, and usually the wisest move is NOT to represent real people. You know how a lot of books begin with 'This is a work of fiction. Any similarity to real people or events is coincidental...' This is purely to cover your own arse so you don't get sued for libel. However, I think that something like a football game is an exception. When a whole bunch of spectators are watching you, your story becomes their story too in a way. So I had absolutely no compunction in recreating those events as truthfully as I remembered them.)

Moving on - I do worry about people interpreting my work literally. Absolutely I worry. I mean - here I'm writing a novel about a football team of chronic losers, and Mr McSpaz plays for Aldinga. You'd be blind not to see a comparison there! But the warning bells didn't really sound until my grandpa asked him 'So, are you one of the characters?' and he said 'Yeah, I think so.' Whereas I would have said no. I won't put real people in my books - it's too awkward and also constricting when I'm trying to develop my characters further. But evidently Mr McSpaz had seen himself in it somewhere. I'm hoping it wasn't the bloke who got paro and pulled off all his clothes and ran naked around the oval after the game.

The real problem for me with my friends and family thinking I'm writing about them, is not the idea that I might offend them or hurt their feelings. All I can do is say, 'No, I did not use you as a character in my book.' From there it is up to them if they believe me or not. What worries me is that, if people do imagine that a particular character is based on them, they'll misinterpret the whole narrative. I know that if I was reading a book and then found out it was about someone I knew, I'd view it from a completely different angle.

But I guess it's inevitable that I am going to incorporate some elements of real people into my characters. One of my mates will say something and I'll think, hey, that's awesome! I'll have to write that down.

This is a really interesting issue. I've enjoyed your comments on here just as much as everyone else, so I reckon your novel would be well worth the purchase. Using myself as an example of the general public who has no idea on where you got your ideas from, or know any of the people personally, there would be no issue at all. No possible reputations for anyone it's based on from my point of view.

However, this does remind me of the movie Funny Farm, the more I think about it, when Andy finds out who the squirrel in Elizabeths' book is based on!

[A Mum]

This site gets enough negative press as it is AM

lol... No, no, no I meant in a positive light

[fisho mcspaz]

Went to the footy yesterday - Happy Valley v Aldinga. The oval was surprisingly dry. Relatively dry, that is, meaning it was still a swamp but there was no visible lake out in the centre square. When I was in high school I lost one of my shoes in the lake on the oval. I didn't really mind because I'd just ingested two litres of goon and so my shoes, as well as most of life's worldly goods, had ceased to matter to me. But I digress. The game was pretty good in that a) Aldinga only lost by 20-odd goals and b) they had an awesome third quarter. Seriously, you take what you can get in this league and soldier on. At least we've got a good run home - the last five matches are all winnable. Mr McSpaz played his first game after dislocating his elbow in the fourth round and he did all right for someone who hasn't trained in eight weeks. Meanwhile I was chewing on my knuckles just waiting for him to break his leg in three places or have a couple of fingers dismembered (all his injuries in recent years have been quite spectacularly awful), but it never happened so that's the third reason why yesterday's game was good.

[fisho mcspaz]

" and the Reynella boys were a bit rattled and started a few fights. Meanwhile the under-18s were all down by the southern goals drinking Cougar out of a funnel (jeez) and they started getting really loud and obnoxious. I don't know what they said to the Reynella full-forward but he cracked it, screamed 'COME OUT HERE AND SAY THAT, YOU LITTLE C**TS!' and got sent off the ground because, as the umpire said, you could hear him all the way up the other end."

Haha Milo , he would make a halirous fictional character!

enjoy your stuff also fisho, keep it coming.

ps - couldn't see that darts phone number today in the club (Reynella) you were taliking about?

Hmmm. Maybe I imagined it. Oh well, that's cool. I can't find my darts anyway.

[Q.]

Thanks for the frank answer, Fisho.

[Media Park]

Maybe safooty.net could get a 'gig' in this book

for anonymity's sake, call it bigfooty...

[fisho mcspaz]

Thanks for the frank answer, Fisho.

No worries. However, I reread what I wrote - about not worrying about hurting my family and friends' feelings - and it sounds a bit callous so I'll just add that I definitely don't want to hurt their feelings, it's just that I am secure in the knowledge that I wouldn't ever use them as characters, because apart from it being like cheating - I'd far rather develop my own characters - it'd also be pretty dishonourable, and so therefore if anyone chooses to get offended because they think I've written about them, it's not my fault and there's nothing I can do about it.

[GWW]

I'll give you an example: my main character, Jase, is playing in the last footy match of the minor round and his opponent keeps eluding him. Finally Jase, out of frustration, tries to put him off with the old 'your missus was a good root' sledge - not realising that she's dead from cancer - and when the other bloke tells him, 'You prick, my wife died two years ago', he responds with 'Well, I reckon that's why she didn't put up much of a fight then.' In order to get away with writing that I had to a) let Jase's opponent give him a good dusting-up before the umpire stepped in; b) get Jase to make a sincere apology to him before the tribunal.

fisho, are you using real town and football club names in your novel or have you made them up?

Made them up. All of them. Too many ethical issues involved if I used real places. The story is set around the east Adelaide Hills/Murraylands region, and the towns etc. are based on towns in that area, but only in a general sense. No one's going to think 'Hey, that's our main street!' or 'I've been to that pub.' At least I hope they won't.

So it will be based around Callington then

[fisho mcspaz]

I'll give you an example: my main character, Jase, is playing in the last footy match of the minor round and his opponent keeps eluding him. Finally Jase, out of frustration, tries to put him off with the old 'your missus was a good root' sledge - not realising that she's dead from cancer - and when the other bloke tells him, 'You prick, my wife died two years ago', he responds with 'Well, I reckon that's why she didn't put up much of a fight then.' In order to get away with writing that I had to a) let Jase's opponent give him a good dusting-up before the umpire stepped in; b) get Jase to make a sincere apology to him before the tribunal.

fisho, are you using real town and football club names in your novel or have you made them up?

Made them up. All of them. Too many ethical issues involved if I used real places. The story is set around the east Adelaide Hills/Murraylands region, and the towns etc. are based on towns in that area, but only in a general sense. No one's going to think 'Hey, that's our main street!' or 'I've been to that pub.' At least I hope they won't.

So it will be based around Callington then

No, that would just be depressing! Cally's problems go far deeper than the senior sides not winning games. That's one club that's really screwed itself over. Plus if you took Sedan/Cambrai out of the mix, Cally effectively got beaten by 66 goals by the second-bottom side last week. I'd be struggling to find something humorous to write about that!

[Footy Chick]

Just add Benny Hill music.

That always makes things funny

[fisho mcspaz]

Thanks FC, now I have the music in my head along with a continuous slideshow of dogs wearing funny hats.

Today I am going to have yet another crack at making Tom Yum soup. I am a pretty decent cook now that I've had a few years' practice but Tom Yum has always been the one dish beyond me, which is annoying because it's also one of my favourites. The first time I tried to make it, I was going to use crabs instead of prawns because they were cheaper - the trouble was, I'd only ever eaten crabs after my mum had pulled the gunky stuff out of them, and I didn't know how to do it myself. I thought it might be a good idea to hit them with a hammer to break them apart. Bang - there goes its guts or brains or whatever, all over me and the table and in the soup pot and on my cat. So in the end I just went to Macca's. All subsequent attempts to make Tom Yum have failed dismally - the vegies have been too soggy, or it tastes watery, or I've put something in there that I shouldn't have, like Worcestershire sauce. (Can't remember why I thought that was a good idea.)

Went to derro land today looking for a second-hand bookshop. I've pillaged all the local ones quite thoroughly so I thought it was time to seek outside the square. I went all the way up to bloody Gawler only to find that the bookshop was gone. I knew there was another one in Elizabeth South so off I went. This time I had better luck but I didn't stay long because there was a bearded lady browsing the five-for-$2 romances outside and it was a bit disconcerting, plus at the back of the shop there was a doorway masked with a giant Australian flag and a notice saying that if I was eighteen I could go behind the flag and read the pornos. Tempting, no doubt, but time to push on. Anyway, I'd vowed I would never venture into an adult bookshop again after my first (and only) time: it was the one near my parents' house and my grotty neighbour, the one who brought the hooker (and her broom) home and who mows his lawn in his saggy jocks, was in there browsing the magazines. I'd only gone in there for a laugh but I lived for weeks in fear that he'd recognised me and that he'd think we shared a common interest.

I'm currently watching Playschool with the boys but I'm just not getting as much fun out of it as I used to. I think that Hickory Dickory clock is a total gyp. The rocket clock was much more fun. And what's this diamond window doing there? Bloody impostor. Bring back John and Benita, I say!