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"All readers come to fiction as willing accomplices to your lies."

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:

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?"