Five Lies They Tell You About Writing

The lies, care of the Huffington Post.

From the piece...

3. Fiction is a lie.

If we are going to be persnickety and literal-minded, we might say that fiction is a made-up story about events that haven't technically occurred to people who don't physically exist. But that doesn't mean fiction isn't honest.

Pundits and reporters routinely abuse the word "fictitious," as in, "The Senator's statement that he never took campaign contributions from a foreign government turned out to be fictitious," when what they really mean to say is, "The Senator is a big fat liar."

My point is that the word "lie" implies a certain duplicitous intent, whereas fiction is designed to be playful and even visionary. So it's a bit disingenuous when a novelist himself announces rather grandly, "We all know that fiction is a lie." Is he just hoping that you'll view him as a romantic, roguish con artist, instead of a slightly nerdy fellow who spends his time ensconced in a small room while making little pecking noises at his computer? Or is he slyly assuring us that his fiction isn't so serious that it will rock the boat with genuinely challenging ideas?

The truth is, good fiction takes us beyond the realm of "facts" and into a greater understanding of the fundamental truths of human existence. In a world where facts as we know them are routinely distorted and conflated by vested interests, fiction can be a gold standard.