Working Up

by Dwayne Phillips

As simple as it seems, I had to learn the zero-th law of fiction.

I like to write fiction short stories. It’s fun for me. I have written 70 or so stories and have them on Smashwords which makes them available on many other outlets such as Barnes and Noble.

I often struggled when I first started writing short stories. I wrote from my life. I wrote about things that I had done and that had happened to me. The stories were boring, so I tried to improve on them.

But, improving on reality is lying. And I am not a liar.

Duh! Here comes the zero-th law of fiction:

Fiction is not true.

And everyone knows that. I, however, had trouble with the zero-th law. It took quite a bit of emotional energy for me to accept it. I could stretch the truth. I could make stories from my life end in ways I wish they had. I could make stories from my life end in terrible ways, far worse than they had. This is fiction.

Duh!

Sometimes it is amazing what blocks writers from writing better.