“Writing Fiction is the Act of Weaving a Series of Lies to Arrive at a Greater Truth”

Khaled Hosseini’s Quote Captures the Truth About Fiction

I was struck dumb the other morning, an unusual condition for me. It was an article I read on Substack that stopped me cold made me put everything else I had planned aside and inspired what you’re reading now.

One of the best parts of social media for me as a writer is the plethora of other writers’ thoughts. I’m like a kid in a candy store when it comes to reading, absorbing, and thinking about what others say about absolutely everything, but especially about writing itself.

The article on Substack focused on fiction versus nonfiction, and it sent me down a rabbit hole that I’m now exploring, taking you along for the ride. In this scenario, you’re the White Rabbit to my Alice. Come on, Wonderland awaits.

Reading Widely is Key

I want to state this clearly: I’m not pitting fiction against nonfiction in any way. There’s room in the world for all kinds of writing, and each piece a writer shares can help us grow in some way.

And nonfiction is as varied a category as fiction. Between genres like historical nonfiction and memoir lie an endless variety of works that can inform on facts, or at least the writer’s opinion about the facts. Nonfiction is, after all, someone’s focus and research and often personal bias, no matter how objective they try to be.

But I want to focus on fiction in this piece and share why I think it’s such an important part of life. Not to wax too philosophical, but I’ve been reading some put-downs of fiction lately and I’m not going to let it slide.

A Word About Readers…

…because, well, without them this article would not matter.

Readers come to every text they see with their filters, like witnesses at a car accident. Ask two readers about a novel and they will have completely different thoughts about the plot, characters, tone and narrative voice, ending, pacing, and absolutely everything about it. And that is the absolute beauty of fiction. Like any art, a painting, or a piece of music, the receiver’s appreciation is singular and individual and so very human. The writer’s message is not, as the saying goes, lost in translation. Rather it is enriched in translation tenfold.

But fiction has benefits beyond its stand-alone value as an art. I’m about to regale you with more rewards for reading fiction than you may have ever realized existed. I’ll start with a pretty big one.

Fiction Helps Dementia Patients

This was from a neurologist I spoke to about my mother, and it makes sense. She explained that aging people in general need to work their memory the way athletes work their muscles, and for the same reason.

Fiction, with its growing, flowing narrative, requires the reader to remember the actions of characters and the events they face. As the dementia patient’s memory gets spotty, reading fiction forces them to focus. I knew we were heading into troubled waters when my 87-year-old mother, a lifelong lover of novels, stopped reading.

A word to the wise as we age, myself included. Keep that TBR pile moving!

Fiction Can Keep People From Isolation

This seems ironic at best since reading is a solo act, but hear me out. Many of us put on a brave face every time we leave the safety of home and loved ones to face the world. In truth, many of us feel alone in a crowded room; like no one gets us understands us, or is like us in a deep and meaningful way.

But fictional characters can bridge that loneliness and anxiety about being the only one who feels or thinks a certain way. When I was younger, I devoured books about teenage girls or troubled teens. I was literally on my own, untethered from a dysfunctional family, angry at the world, a natural-born risk-taker looking for thrills. Are You There God, It’s Me, Margaret; Jean and Johnny; A Catcher in the Rye; The Outsiders; these and many more titles saved me by showing me I was not alone.

I remember our seventh-grade teachers warning us away from Go Ask Alice because they were worried we would want to be like Alice. But the reality is, we already were like Alice, and her story gave us pause and strength while giving voice to someone on the same train wreck we were riding. Alice saved some of us from ourselves.

Fiction Allows People to Feel Those Emotions We Often Stuff

I’ll admit I feel better about myself if I do keep many of my feelings to myself. And believe me, I’m a big feeler. Pretty sure that’s why writing is my thing.

Can you imagine a world where emotions rule? I think this would actually make for an interesting story. Steal away, I’m 100% sure your version would be different than mine and can’t wait to read it.

Reading fiction that is well-written takes you out of your world and into someone else’s. It a fairly safe space to let go and laugh, cry, get really angry, get really silly or really sexy or really anxious or really whatever you need. It’s paperback therapy, or ebook therapy which doesn’t quite flow off the tongue as nicely; and connecting with your feelings in the privacy of a story is a great way to figure out your own shit.

And then write a fiction book about it please; pay it forward and all that.

And Last But Not Least, Fiction Fuels the Imagination

As an elementary school educator, I touted read-alouds to anyone who would listen. With children’s growing brains and sense of self, it is of utmost importance for adults to read them a huge variety of genres, both fiction and nonfiction. Doing so stretches their little worlds, builds schema for future dealing with shit, leads them to a life of wonder and awe and humor and critical thinking and so much more. Win-win-win-win-win.

But kids are not the only ones who need to foster those senses and feed their imagination. I’m not sure when we stop asking questions, asking “but why?”, trying on different ways of doing things. I do know that by the time my students were in fourth grade it was already waning and that made me so sad. The inner child is real; she is waiting, more despondently with each passing year, to be invited to play. Let her out! And fiction reading is an easy door to open.

A Waste of Time?

This is what people who prefer informational reading sometimes think. I’m here to shout to the world how wrong they are.

Back in the 70’s there was a saying with good intentions, “Drugs are for those who can’t handle reality.” The smartasses who brought us Garbage Pail Kids Stickers and Mad Magazine made a bumper sticker that said, “Reality is for those who can’t handle drugs.”

If you substitute the word fiction for drugs, you’ll understand there’s room and need in the world for both.

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Thanks for reading! Here’s another article you might enjoy and check out my novels too!