Thinly Veiled Autobiography

A book brings expectations. When I open a book, it's about a story. When I write, it's the same thing. Each character has a personality and a challenge to overcome.

I know one of the clichéd pieces of writing advice is "write what you know," but that doesn't mean every story needs to be taken directly from the writer's life. There are pieces of truth and pieces of other things woven together to make great fiction. The pieces one person picks out as the truth become the piece that someone else believes can't be true.

From time to time I run into writers who seem to write thinly veiled autobiography. Fiction isn't as complicated as truth. We can't believe what really happened, but we have to believe in fiction. An author needs to tie up the loose ends at the end of the story. Books don't generally run through endless characters for one use - they'll trim them down to use one best friend for several purposes and one antagonist in many cases.

Why do I say seem? I heard a writer not long ago substitute his own name for his protagonist's. Another one talked about his protagonist as "a mix of himself and his best friend" but the protagonist's name was one letter from his own. I've also heard "but it really happened that way."

I wonder if that leads many readers to think that some part of this truth that writers need to express in story must be what really happened. They look at my stories and they look at me and they might wonder. All I can do is try not to let it get to me, and if they ask - tell them it isn't true. At least not what they're asking.

Fiction is fooling the audience into believing something is real that isn't. If I do that, I'm a successful writer. Can I fool you? I hope so.