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Okay, so I'm writing a WW 2 novel called The Swimmer. It's about a Jewish high school swimming champion whose family gets taken to Auschwitz. The main character survives the gas chamber because he's able to hold his breath. He escapes the camp and tries to make it to Israel. However, when he gets to the dock in Romania, he doesn't have the money for passage on the ferry. He is forced to join the Romanian resistance to earn his passage and while involved with this group takes place in a daring mission. He finally gets his ticket, but then the ferry is torpedoed by the British as a result of conflicts involving Zionist repatriation. He survives and finally makes it to his people's homeland. The story is, in fact, "based on actual events." There was a boy who survived the gas chamber and there was a refugee ship that was sabotaged leaving only one passenger alive. However, they weren't the same person and the part about the protagonist's participation in the resistance movement is pure fiction. This is my question. If I'm intoxicated by the epic journey aspect of the book, but I'm seriously considering trying to find representation for the novel, should I limit the story to as few fantastical events as possible? It would be much shorter and the Romanian section is perhaps the most exciting part of the entire book. Thoughts? |