The essay summarizes crucial propositions of John Searle’s approach to fiction and extends the analysis to other genres, specifically to drama, photograph and film. For Searle, novelists pretend to make assertions, because they need to make use the effect inherent in this sort of speech acts – to represent a state of affairs. We believe that all fictions arise as imitations of authentic representation: a fictional photograph imitates a documentary photograph that is the image captured with the help of photographic film or digital media. A fictional film imitates real people and real events recorded on a camera. Fictional film characters only exist, because the film-makers pretend that they have documented them. Fictions are a part of the social universe: we treat fiction according to the rules and habits we have acquired as members of the society. Fictions are also capable of imitating the effect of authentic representations: novels and films achieve to provoke real emotions.