From childhood memories to imagined worlds, fiction often draws on our experiences of real life. But can stories also change how we understand ourselves and others?
How much of what we read in fiction is inspired by real life? And when writers turn personal experiences into stories, are they simply recreating the past, or finding new ways to understand it?
In the latest episode of Affairs of the Arts, a podcast from the at St Mary's University, London, hosts and are joined by award-winning children's and young adult author Tony McGowan to explore the relationship between fiction and reality.
Tony, whose novel Lark won the Carnegie Medal in 2020, has written more than 50 books, many of which draw on his own experiences of growing up and attending school in Leeds.
Together, they discuss how memory influences storytelling, whether fiction can help readers develop empathy, and why literature might be particularly important for young people navigating an increasingly digital world.
How does real life inspire fiction?
For Tony McGowan, the relationship between fiction and reality has changed throughout his writing career. His early novels, including Hellbent, Henry Tumour and Hello Darkness, combined memories of his school days with literary influences, mythology and surrealism.
However, when he began writing books for young people with dyslexia and reluctant readers, Tony reconsidered his approach to storytelling. Rather than focusing on elaborate literary references and language, he began concentrating on creating characters that readers could recognise, understand and care about. This shift brought his writing closer to the experiences and emotions of everyday life.
For Tony, school has always been a particularly rich source of inspiration. He describes his secondary school in Leeds as a difficult environment, filled with intense friendships, rivalries, bullying and complicated relationships with teachers. These experiences continue to influence his characters and the situations they encounter, even decades later.
But fiction is not necessarily about reproducing events exactly as they happened. Instead, the process of writing allows authors to revisit their memories, reconsider their experiences and explore emotions that may have stayed with them long after an event.
Can storytelling help us make sense of the past?
One of the most personal parts of the discussion explores how fiction can become a way of confronting difficult memories. Tony reflects on his experiences of witnessing bullying at school and the guilt he still feels about occasions when he failed to stand up for others. These memories have influenced several of his books, particularly The Fall, which explores friendship, betrayal and cruelty through the experiences of its young protagonist.
Tony also discusses how his relationship with his younger brother influenced his Truth of Things series, including Brock, Pike, Rook and Lark. The books centre on two brothers and their close relationship, something Tony acknowledges was partly inspired by his desire to imagine a different version of his own experiences of brotherhood.
For Kim, this raises an interesting question about the purpose of fiction. Rather than communicating the factual truth of an event, perhaps stories allow writers to explore the emotional truth behind it.
Two people can experience the same event very differently. Their memories may change over time, shaped by their emotions, relationships and understanding of what happened. Fiction allows writers to explore these different perspectives without being limited to a single account of reality. In this sense, storytelling is not simply about remembering the past. It can also become a way of making sense of it.
Does reading fiction make us more empathetic?
The conversation also considers whether reading fiction can help us better understand other people's emotions and experiences. Literature invites readers into the lives of characters whose circumstances may be very different from their own. Through stories, we can experience unfamiliar situations, encounter different perspectives and explore difficult emotions without experiencing those events ourselves.
But does this necessarily make us more empathetic? Kim questions whether there is sufficient evidence to demonstrate a direct relationship between reading fiction and increased empathy. While the discussion acknowledges that research findings are mixed, it also considers whether the value of fiction might lie in something less easily measured.
For Kim, reading can help people articulate their emotions and recognise that experiences they believed were unique to them may also be shared by others. A story about loneliness, friendship, bullying or belonging might resonate with a reader because it gives language to something they have experienced but struggled to explain.
Tony similarly reflects on the challenge of writing for contemporary teenagers when his own adolescence took place in a very different world. Although technology, education and social expectations have changed, he hopes that the emotions at the heart of his stories remain recognisable.
The discussion raises a broader question: perhaps the importance of fiction is not simply whether it makes us more empathetic, but whether it helps us understand the complexity of human experience.
Why does fiction matter in the age of social media?
For young people today, storytelling extends far beyond books. Social media platforms such as Instagram and TikTok offer opportunities to construct, share and continually reshape personal identities. As Mark observes, these platforms encourage young people to tell stories about themselves, often presenting carefully selected versions of their lives.
This creates an interesting contrast with traditional fiction. While social media encourages us to focus on our own identities and how we present ourselves to others, reading a novel invites us to step outside our experiences and enter somebody else's world.
For Mark, fiction offers young people an opportunity to explore different possibilities, perspectives and identities without always having to define themselves. This does not necessarily mean that reading and social media are in competition. Both are forms of storytelling, and both can play a role in how young people understand themselves.
However, the discussion raises questions about the importance of creating opportunities for young people to engage with stories that are not centred on their own lives. If so much of our digital experience encourages us to construct and refine our identities, could fiction provide a valuable space to experience the world through somebody else's eyes?
Why are myths and storytelling still relevant today?
The relationship between fiction and reality is not limited to contemporary novels. Tony discusses how ancient mythology continues to influence modern storytelling, from Greek myths to Viking and Celtic traditions. His novel I Am the Minotaur, for example, reimagines the familiar myth from the perspective of the Minotaur himself.
For Tony, mythology offers more than a collection of characters and plots. It provides a way of understanding the world through recognisable figures, conflicts and relationships. He compares his childhood experience of school to a mythological world, with teachers occupying positions of enormous authority and playgrounds populated by heroes, villains and intimidating figures.
While schools have changed considerably since Tony's childhood, the emotional experiences of young people have not necessarily disappeared. Bullying, friendship, power and belonging remain important parts of growing up, even if they now take different forms, including through social media.
This is part of what makes mythology and fiction so enduring. Stories can be retold and reimagined for different generations because the emotions and conflicts at their centre remain recognisable.
Can fiction change how we see the world?
Towards the end of the episode, the discussion returns to the wider purpose of storytelling. Tony explains that one of his main ambitions as a writer is to make readers feel deeply, whether that means laughter, sadness, despair or hope. For him, fiction does not necessarily need to communicate a particular moral message. Its power can lie in the intensity of the emotional experience it creates.
The conversation also explores how fictional stories can influence our understanding of real social issues. Mark highlights television dramas about the criminal justice system as examples of how storytelling can bring difficult experiences to public attention and potentially contribute to wider conversations about social change.
Stories do not have to be factual to communicate something meaningful about reality. They can challenge assumptions, encourage reflection and bring emotional experiences to life in ways that factual accounts alone may not achieve.
Perhaps this is where the relationship between fiction and reality becomes most interesting. Fiction draws on the world around us, but it can also influence how we understand that world. And whether through novels, mythology, television or film, storytelling continues to offer opportunities to explore what it means to be human.
Listen to Affairs of the Arts
In the latest episode of Affairs of the Arts, Mark Griffin and Dr Kim Salmons are joined by award-winning author Tony McGowan to explore how real-life experiences inspire fiction, the relationship between memory and imagination, and whether storytelling can help us better understand ourselves and others.
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Affairs of the Arts is a podcast from the , exploring contemporary questions about culture, creativity, heritage, and the role of the arts in society.