Fact and Story

Fact: Where I live, at the moment I’m writing this story, the sun hasn’t appeared yet.

Story: I occasionally enjoy getting up early when I know I’ll be free from the distractions that come from other people in my house being awake.

What is fact?

• A piece of information presented as having objective reality;
• The quality of being actual

In the purest sense, a fact is something that cannot be argued.

Even that is somewhat subjective. For example, stating that she is tall or he is overweight are relative statements. She is tall. He is overweight. Compared with whom?

A fact can generally be communicated in less than a single breath (though that is clearly not a fact). To state a real fact, you have to remove all the subjectivity.

• Fact: She has eyes.
• Fact: He has hair.

Based on the definition of fact having “objective reality”, you might be able to argue that certain attributes can be included in those simple examples while still maintaining fact. She has blue eyes may still be fact — though you can definitely argue that shades of blue make it somewhat subjective. Are her eyes clear blue? Sky blue? Really more of a bluish-green?