Are You a Liar?
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Call it validation therapy or creative license or even perfidious prevaricating, if you like. But the fact is that if you're a fiction writer, your pants better be on fire. Lying is part of the game.
Yeah, that sounds a little harsh. We've been taught all our lives that lying is one of the Big Ten to be avoided. But before you go running off to light a few hundred repentance candles, allow me to expand this thought.
One of the definitions of the word fiction is:
Invention or fabrication as opposed to fact.
The thing is, when a reader picks up a piece of fiction, they know in the back of their mind that it's not true. There's no deception involved. Readers expect a story world of believable make-believe.
Next time someone asks you what you do, tell them you're a professional liar. It's a great icebreaker, worth the shockfactor in raised eyebrows alone, and fun to count how many times someone's comeback is, "Oh, so you're a lawyer?"