Saturday, March 13, 2010

Commissioned Works

How many writers can share with me the perils of commissioned writing projects. I've been through the mill several times, most recently twice. In each case, the person in charge has told me point blank, "Since we are paying for you to pipe us a tune, we'll call the tune." In other words, to hell with historical or biographical 'truth.' We want the past to be recreated or invented as we imagine it to have been. If there is any line separating fact from fiction, that line vanishes, it seems to me, in commissioned works. Any comments? RBF