When we speak of historical events, we do so with a certain amount of perceived knowledge; that is, we come to believe we know specific, individual 'truths' about the event. Since historical works are never unembellished lists of documented facts, the knowledge of how we conceive of factual events, how we document events we did not witness, is important in understanding the resulting storytelling process, not just in fictional literary constructs such as novels, short stories, poetry or film, but in the formulation of history itself. For written history must be seen, at least in part, as a constructed or representational reality and this construction generally takes place organically, that is, there are no architects of such histories. Instead, they come together as a result of public acceptance of the individual elements of the narrative. Over time, historical data and anecdotal narrative solidify into a cohesive whole made up of both hard fact and individual response to those facts, a blended whole that can be termed the master narrative of the historical event and which serves as the basis on which we construct the fictional narratives of literature and film.