Winfrey said she was wary at first of "The Water Dancer," if only because she found Coates such a "beautiful essayist" and wondered if he could move beyond the factual world. Journalists from George Orwell to Tom Wolfe have found success as novelists, but the switch from nonfiction to fiction can frustrate the most gifted writer. Nonfiction doesn't only require adherence to the truth, but a kind of control over the narrative that the fiction writer has to surrender, at least in part. Novelists often speak of their stories becoming so real to them that a given character might lead them in a direction they hadn't otherwise intended. Coates felt that with the protagonist of "The Water Dancer," Hiram Walker, who did not start out at the center of the story, or even with the name Hiram.