Some on the World Wide Web write about a “new genre” of fiction called “biofiction.” Whether biofiction is truly a new genre and will become mainstream, as in “biography” or “mystery” or “suspense” remains to be seen.
Biographies have been with us since time began. Presumably, oral storytellers sitting around ancient campfires no doubt recounted the lives and times of notable figures. Greeks, Romans and other societies all told stories of their gods and their heroes.
The Bible, of course, is replete with stories from the lives of men and women God chose to lead and shape His kingdom on earth. Adam, Noah, Abraham, Jacob and Joseph, Moses and Aaron, Elijah and Elisha, David, Solomon and more. Both the Old Testament and New insightfully recap significant points – some high and some low – in the lives of men and women contributing to what we now call “The Scriptures.”
Typically, biographies are related in narrative format. ”He or she was born here, lived there, did this or did that,” and so on. Interesting amalgamations of facts and information. Not, however, always interesting reading.
Enter 20th-century movie-making and “based on a true story” or “as told to the author” scenarios Voila! The art of telling true-life stories in more readable, faster-paced formats that strictly narration is born.
Biofiction is simply telling true stories in dialog-rich formats. Without Spot or Wrinkle (free ebook below), for instance, reads like a novel and tells the true story of a man and woman assigned to co-lead a Bible study at their church who fell in love and were married. I wrote the story from knowing the couple at the same church they attended, took notes on what I observed, then filled in details with conversations with them.
While the ebook ends with their wedding, today the real-life couple have been married more than 20 years, live in a different state from where they met, and have 3 grandchildren.
The soon-to-be-published biofiction novel, And Then Came Life, is about a young man growing up in dysfunctional family, discovering acceptance in homosexual relationships, then escaping the lifestyle through a miraculous and divine intervention. The story was written solely from emails the protagonist sent almost daily for more than 6 months.
Today “David Goldberg” is happily married, a father and a small business owner.
Biofiction stories are everywhere. A well-known Christian literary agent recently blogged about the plethora of memoirs and family sagas he receives. While he’s certain these budding authors are hopeful, he knows their stories have little to no commercial value.
If, however, those family stories are written as biofiction and crafted with plot, characterization, dialog, and POV, their commercial value increases immeasurably. Then those stories, dear to the hearts of passionate writers, might potentially see the light of an endcap in a local bookstore.
More importantly, those true stories about the lives of honest-to-goodness men and women might speak into our own lives.
