Wild Fiction

‘This a very grey area. There’s a lot of overlap between fantasy, magical realism, surrealist mystery and all the other names given to each genre in this area. What at one point could be an action thriller can change into magical realism in the next sentence and then into fantasy fiction in the following sentence. The characters are always under the guidance of the author. Here, however, we have something completely different. Nobody’s actually given a name to this style of fiction yet. You call it Real Fiction, but is it real? For example, who is actually writing this story right now? You or the author?’
Rebecca paused and took a deep swig of her drink, leaving a very fine line of Guinness foam on her upper lip. She fixed him in the eyes: ‘I am, I’m making my own decisions. I came here of my own volition. Nobody’s manipulating me to do this,’ she said.
‘But you don’t know, do you? It could be you or the author making you say these things. He could now be directing your moves and actions. How do you know who’s in charge?’
‘Assume I’m in control,’ Rebecca said it so convincingly and forcefully that Retir dropped the subject. ‘You still haven’t told me why I’m here,’ she added.
‘As I said, I’m from the SPCF. We are a small society of authors that keep an eye out for an author with the ability to make fiction come to life. As I mentioned, the last occurrence of this was fifty years ago and, as such, we haven’t been very active. We, as authors, are not talented enough to do this but we can interact with the fictional characters that your creator has created and we can help and develop you. I’ve been assigned to your case. We feel that the author is abusing his power over you and we think he’s making you help him write a book. Is this true?’
‘Continue,’ Rebecca relaxed the muscles on her face to create what she imagined would look like a poker face. Things were getting too strange to give away information like this.
‘I too, am an author. If you’re not satisfied with what you’re doing, the way you’ve been developed, your habitual actions or the way you look, I can give you the latitude to develop yourself fully in one of my stories. In fact, I have a story that I’m currently working on that would be perfect for you.’
Rebecca knotted her eyebrows together in a frown at Retir.