It was foggy that day, but suddenly the fog lifted and the sun came out. I was on that strange street I encountered the other day! Down the road was that tavern, “The Meeting Place”. I went in.

I scanned the room, the bar was empty, but I had a feeling I wasn’t alone! Where was the “lady in the mirror? My heart sank.

There was a song playing on the jukebox. “We’ll Meet Again” with Vera Lynn singing.

Then I spotted her, in a far corner, at a table for two. She was dressed in red not black like the time before. She was staring into a mirror that flanked the table on two sides.

I slowly approached her and she saw me coming in the mirror. I saw her expressive face smiling at me!

“Remember me?” I said, sitting next to her so we were both facing the mirror.

“Oh yes, I remember you, that’s why I’m here!”

The bartender came over. I ordered two glasses of red wine.

“Why did you come back?”

“I said we would meet again and I would help you with your problems!”

She put her hand on mine. It was an electric moment! Her eyes in the mirror were smoldering.

“You were into meditation, right?” I said, taking a sip of wine.

“Yes,  meditation for the body, mind, and soul! Now, what’s your problem?” she whispered, her face close to mine!

“Well, I get frustrated and anxious when I wonder what’s my purpose in life, what’s meaningful to me, and what’s the point of it all?”

“What you need to do, my friend, is open your chakras!”

“ What are chakras?”

She squeezed my hand and I felt a tingling sensation in my fingers!

“Chakras are centers of energy, located on the midline of your body. They govern your psychological properties. Instinctual and High Mental.”

I signaled the bartender to bring us a bottle of wine. He came and re-filled our glasses.

“If you can open your crown chakra, you will release the wisdom to figure out your problem. But you must meditate hard and look for the answer, it will come.”

“What should I do?”

“We will hold hands and close our eyes and be still. You think about the answer to your problem.”

She whispered into my ear, “Be still, be still,” and then brushed her lips on my cheek!

A few minutes of silence followed. She broke the silence and said:

“It was not into your ear, I whispered, but into your heart.

It was not my lips that kissed you, but my soul!”

She kept holding my hand.

“Did you come up with an answer to your problem?”

Her eyes were burning me through the mirror.

“Yes, I think I have come up with my purpose and meaning. I’m a writer, and through my writing, my readers might come to a better understanding of themselves and the world. There is truth in fiction! Through my writing, things will become clearer to me too!”

She smiled.

“I’m so glad I met you, I feel better in my skin now. I don’t want to lose you. I need your support.”

She touched my cheek with her warm hand and said:

“Just think of me and I will always be walking with you through life!”

I looked in the mirror and the only person I saw was myself! She was gone!

The bartender came over and said, “You owe me $10 for the wine!”

I was out for a walk one afternoon and I turned down a street that I have never been on before! I was in unfamiliar territory, or was I? There was a tavern at the end of the road called, “The Meeting Place”.  I was intrigued, so I went in.

There was a long bar with stools and a few tables and chairs and an old jukebox. The walls were full of pictures of past historical events and past famous people!

There were some people talking at the tables. But there only was one lady sitting at the bar. She was staring seriously at herself in the huge mirror behind the bar.

I sat next to her and ordered a beer. The bartender served me my beer and eyed me up and down! I took a sip of my beer and I stared at the lady in the mirror.

She was an attractive mature lady dressed in black, with grey hair cut short, framing her face. She had an interesting face, like she had seen and experienced many things!

“Hello, my name is Dave, do you come here often?”

“No, this is my first time. I got lost on this street and wandered in here for a drink.”

“Same here, I don’t think I’ve been on this street before.”

We both looked at each other’s eyes in the mirror.”

“What do you do when you’re not getting lost?” I smiled.

“I’m into meditation,” said the lady, still looking into the foggy mirror.

“That’s interesting, when I turned down this street my mind was drifting. I felt like I was in a special state, about halfway between being awake and sleeping. After being in this daze, I felt I had been down this street before but I didn’t know when!”

The lady in the mirror smiled at me.

“Has any strange things happened to you?”

“Oh yes, one time, at midnight, I got a phone call from someone asking me out on a date! I asked him what a young man, like him, was doing asking me out. He asked me, how I knew he was young. So I described his looks on the phone. He hung up and never called again!”

“That’s sort of scary! Maybe the young man thought you were some kind of witch!”

My lady in the mirror laughed!

“No, I’m not a witch. I just am able to see things. Do you understand?”

“Yes, I do and I find you very interesting. You could probably help me with some of my problems!”

“I believe I could help you. We all experience what we believe!”

She got up to leave and touched my hand.

“I have to go but I’m sure we will meet again. If you think of me hard enough when you are meditating, I will help you with you problems.”

Then she was gone! I looked into the mirror again and closed my eyes and I saw her in my minds eye.

“Hey, buddy, are you alright?”

It was the bartender shaking me.

“Yes, I’m alright. I was just meditating.”

“Oh, it looked like you were doing nothing but dozing.”

I said, “The great thing about meditation is that it makes doing nothing RESPECTABLE!”

I was having lunch at a restaurant with a friend and he was telling me about an acquaintance of his that was sick and would require a long drawn out treatment. The treatment would not be pleasant and it would go on for weeks!

“He knows he will have to endure it to the end so he can feel good again.”

“I’m sorry to hear that, but there are ways of thinking to help him get through this bad period.”

“What are they?’ My friend asked eagerly.

The waiter came over and asked if we were ready to order.

“Not just yet, but you can bring us a bottle of the house red wine, please.”

“Well, let me start by saying there is something in the center of our being that is a kind of wisdom that sees beyond sickness and unhappiness. It is the part of you that is POSITIVE. It is the part of you that isn’t disturbed when the circumstances of your life go sour.”

We both took a sip of our wine.

“How does this deep part of us stay positive?”

“This place I’m talking about is the center core of you where contentment lives. It is NOT interested in what happens, it is interested in how you RELATE to what happens. In this case your friend’s sickness that requires arduous treatment.”

“How do you tap into this deep core?”

“This core is concerned with your healthy functioning. You have to think good thoughts and you can do this because you are the creator of your thoughts.”

My luncheon mate looked worried.

“But my friend is feeling quite a bit of emotional pain, having to face up to this treatment.”

“That’s why it’s important to concentrate on what kind of thoughts you are having about the illness. It’s the negative thoughts about the condition that creates the emotional pain!”

“I’m confused, it’s so difficult to deal with illness!”

“Of course it’s difficult, BUT, the fact that you MUST see the treatment to the end is all the more reason to think positively and live through it with a peaceful inner feeling, rather than to be eaten up by the illness.”

“Okay, how do you get this good feeling even though you are ill?”

“You vow to yourself that you are going to enjoy every moment as much as you can regardless of the illness and treatment. Think thoughts that inspire you to soldier on. The treatment isn’t going to last forever! Good thoughts will make you feel good. Such is the power of THOUGHT!”

My friend was shaking his head.

“Okay, so how do you get rid of negative thoughts?”

“Your DISMISS them and put good thoughts in your head. You have that CHOICE.”

“It seems to me you’re talking about denying your illness.”

“No, I’m not talking about denial. I’m saying if you are sick you must face the truth. But you don’t have to ruin every moment with bad thinking about your condition. Negative thinking breeds suffering. Try to enjoy the present until the end of the treatment. It will pass quickly. Remember, the NOW is all anyone has.”

“So what’s your final thought on this matter before we order lunch,” said my friend, looking relaxed.

“Know you have the choice to feel good through good thoughts. Live in the present and enjoy it.”

“LETS EAT, I FEEL BETTER ALREADY!”

I was in my Scriptorium (study) writing my second novel when the doorbell broke my train of thought.

It was my Long Lost Cousin (LLC), who I hadn’t seen for a few weeks. I almost thought he was going to become “long lost” again after we have been re-united!

I ushered him into the lounge.

“Hi cousin, what have you been up to lately?” he asked nonchalantly.

“Well, I just finished posting my current blog.”

“Oh, I was going to ask you how you come up with your blog stories? They are very interesting.”

“Well, I try to write blogs that are relevant and topical, about issues that affect people. I create a character with a problem that puts them in conflict with themselves (in their mind) and others. Then comes the narrative and dialogue tension. I try to help the character through their problem (through research) which is interesting information for the reader. I inject some humor, but there is always a serious side to the story. I do all this in about 500 to 600 words!”

“Boy! Cousin, that’s a terrific recipe for a short post.”

“I think so,” I smiled.

“I notice a few classics on your bookshelf. What is a classic, anyway? And what makes them interesting to you?” LLC looked pensive.

“You are full of questions today!”

“Yes, I feel like expanding my brain today!” LLC said laughing.

“Not so long ago, I met an interesting fella at a literary lunch. He told me he had read many of the classics in literature in his life and he talked constantly about them.”

My cousin looked very interested in my tale.

“This chap held all of us at the table spellbound! When we mentioned a book he would tell us the deeper meaning of the story in his opinion.”

He was better than all the speakers that day!

“This chap whet my appetite to do some study of the classics myself. And the first question I had, was just like you, what is a classic?”

“Well, I’m glad I asked an intelligent question,” smiled LLC.

“Shall we have a drink, cousin? Whiskey on the rocks?”

“Oh, that sounds great.”

I brought our drinks and we both savored our first sip!

I continued, “A classic is a written work that is TIMELESS and TIMELY! They’re NOT stale and dusty as some people think. Many of us have grown up with these stories but really didn’t understand their deeper meanings.”

“So cousin, reading the classics will help us understand history better and make it come alive.”

“That’s exactly correct. The classics have insights in them that challenge us, today and tomorrow!”

“So, the ideas in the classics are timeless and topical.”

“Right cousin, hence, Shakespeare is for “all the ages!”

We both pondered that thought while we took another sip of our drink.

“What are you into at the moment as far as studying the classics?”

“At the moment I’m into the American classics. Reading these books is like a window into the culture of the time the author was writing in.”

“So, you will learn a lot about America?”

“Right on, cousin. The American classics are the STORIED past of the country.”

“What will you be reading about?”

“I’ll be reading about the Salem Witch Trials, the Revolutionary War, the Civil War, the Gold Rush, the Great War of 1914-1918, the glitzy 20’s and the depression 30’s. Stories of human experience in these times, so we understand them better.”

“So, they will supply you with the “inside” story.”

“Yes, they will because the events will appear to us through the author’s writing, as the dynamics of living people in the stories, rather than facts and dates that people memorize!”

“It all sounds very interesting. I think I will get into the classics.”

We both finished our whiskeys.

“Yes, by all means get started on the classics. You will learn so much. For example, the decline of values after WW1 and then the Great Depression come to us in the descriptive writing of Fitzgerald, Hemingway and Steinbeck. These authors speak in their moment and give us understanding of the past that echoes right up to the present!”

“I can’t wait to get started.”

“Good for you, cousin. Enjoy the world of classic literature.”

There was a moment of silence as if everything we were discussing was sinking into our minds, like a sponge!

“Someone once said, “A classic is a book that has never finished saying what it has to say!”

“Hey! I like that quote,” said LLC as he was leaving.

“One final thought before you go:

WHEN YOU READ A CLASSIC, THE AUTHOR TRANSFORMS HISTORY INTO UNDERSTANDING!”

I was perched on a green padded stool at my favorite watering hole waiting for my Long Lost Cousin to join me. We were recently re-united after fifty years!

After a few minutes, he climbed up onto a stool next to me and said in a choked voice: “I’m a bag of nerves since I retired.”

He did look pale and drawn.

“What’s the matter?’ I said, signaling the bartender for two more beers.

“I don’t want a beer, get me a whiskey.”

The bartender served up our drinks in record time.

“Now, that we have the drinks we want, what is all the anxiety about?”

“I had a dream last night and this voice kept asking me questions.”

“What did this voice say?”

“Well, it started out saying: “Now that you’re retired,” and then it continued, “Who are you? Where are you going? And where do you belong?”

My cousin’s eyes were bulging out of his head!

“Oh, it’s the old bug-a-boo, “Identity Crisis.”

“Yes, it’s a crisis alright! Ever since I retired from my job of 25 years, I’ve been at loose ends.”

My cousin drank his whiskey and ordered another!

“You retired a couple of years ago. How did you cope with those questions?”

LLC stared at me waiting for my wisdom.

“Well, I think it boils down to identity management, in other words, changing your identity. Get out of the work box you were in for 25 years!”

“Okay cousin, I repeat, how did you answer those questions?”

My LLC was pushing me for answers. I hoped I could satisfy him.

He broke into my thoughts and said: “And another thing, I feel like I’m invisible since I retired. People seem to ignore me! Why is that?”

“Boy oh boy, cousin, you’re really bombarding me with questions. Maybe we can tie both problems together. The identity crisis and the invisible feelings.”

We sat in silence for a minute. My cousin was shifting his weight on the stool.

“Well, lets start with the thought that we live in a “youth-obsessed” society and also a “work-oriented” society. So, when you retire, people tend to think you’re no longer a person of interest! Your opinions are not noteworthy! That is a prejudice that many people hold.”

“That’s a nasty prejudice to have,” said my cousin, angrily.

“Granted, but it’s a fact of life!”

“So, what do we do about it?” LLC was demanding.

“We have many identities, but when we retire from our life-time work, we lose that framework identity. So, we have to grow another identity, so to speak.”

“How do we do that?”

“By cultivating different interests. Every action we take has meaning to us and to others. This is why it is critical to shape our identities to our present circumstances.”

“I’m confused,” said LLC, rolling his eyes.

“Well, our identities are not fixed, they can be changed. Your new identity could bring more pleasure and happiness into your life. It’s great to explore new realities and ways of being.”

“It’s starting to get clearer.”

“Okay, let me answer those questions that I came to grips with when I retired. Then you can use my example as a guide.”

“When I retired I knew I would need some interest to fill the hours and to fulfill me as a person. I was always interested in writing but my daily work life used up most of my time. Now, I was free to create another identity. I began writing again.”

“That must have been a great feeling.”

“It was cousin, now let me answer the questions:

Who Am I?-I’m Writer Dave, a writer who gets great satisfaction out of creating stories and having them read by others. I belong to writer groups and I attend writer conferences that give me a wider social context. I also feel that I am a separate and unique individual, which is very important.”

I took a deep breath and continued:

Where Am I Going?-I’m directing my life toward learning how to write better. My goals are to write my blog and more novels in the future.

Where Do I Belong?-I belong and am accepted in the writer circles that I circulate in.”

“Wow! That’s great cousin. You sound very satisfied.”

“I’ll leave you with this, the older I get, the more I understand how my mind works. My identity is an essential part of my being which gives me satisfaction and stability in my life.”

“Cousin, I feel better already.”

And with that, my LLC left the building!

A friend of mine asked me a curious question. It was curious, for two reasons, one, we were in our favorite watering hole and two, why would he think such a thing?

“Are most writers alcoholics?”

“What makes you ask that?”

“Well Dave, you are a writer and I’d like to become one and yesterday someone said to me if I become a writer there’s a chance I will be an alcoholic!”

I smiled and said, “Well, you know I like my wine with my meals but I am far from an alcoholic.”

“Some famous writers were alcoholics, such as Fitzgerald, Hemingway and Williams,” said my friend.

“Granted, some writers think that ideas flow better with a drink while writing, it also relieves the writer’s tension. But that is not what makes a writer!”

“Okay then, here’s another question for you. What are writers like?”

“That’s a better question and for the answer we will have to delve into the writer’s character.”

My friend had a pensive look on his face.

“I’ve heard a lot about “writer’s temperament”. What’s that?”

“I can see we’re going to have quite a discussion here, lets have another drink. Bartender, two more old fashions, please.”

“There are a lot of myths attached to writer’s temperament, like alcoholism and moods. But in reality a writer is a person who is more versatile, more sympathetic and more studious than the ordinary person. They don’t pay much attention to the ideas of the crowd. They amuse themselves in solitude!”

“That’s interesting, but what about the despair of the writer? It’s not all glamour, is it?”

“No, far from it,” I laughed.

“I like to daydream about stories,” said my friend.

“That’s okay, it’s part of the writing process but then you have to turn the dream into reality.”

“There’s a lot of doubt and worry attached to writing, isn’t there?”

“There are times while worrying about my story, I have lots of reasons to doubt and not one for self-confidence. But that’s also part of the writer’s lot, a period of despair!”

“Someone told me a writer is two people in one. What’s that all about?”

“The two people are the “unconscious” and the “conscious”. They are the mental functions of the whole writer. The unconscious provides the rising story, types of characters, scenes and emotional responses. Then in the conscious it is scrutinized and polished and sent back to the unconscious for the final combination of components to form the whole. Then it signals the conscious the work has been done and finally the actual writing of the story begins!”

“Boy, I never knew so much goes on in the creative mind.”

“Yes, you have to learn to be your own best friend and your own severest critic.”

“I’ve also been told that writers have to be original. But others say, there’s no such thing as pure originality because every story has been done! So, how can we be original?”

“Good question, since there are only 36 dramatic situations or plots, so how do we get many, many different stories from those 36? That’s where your originality comes into play. It’s how you present them!”

“What do you mean?” said my wan-a-be writer friend.

“The one contribution we writers can make to the vast pool of knowledge, is how the world looks to us through our stories.”

“Oh, I get it, sort of a personal judicious selection of our views.”

“Hey, right on! Now, out of about seven billion people worldwide, YOU ARE UNIQUE. Isn’t that food for thought?”

“It makes you feel special.”

“Right, no one has exactly your background, your experience, or grew up like you did, or faces the world with the exact ideas that you have!”

My writer friend smiled and said, “So, if I write a story, it is told through my eyes. Then I have a piece of original work.”

“How your story unfolds is unique to you, it’s your character showing through your work, it’s your original point of view.”

My friend pondered that for a moment.

I spoke up, “Lets have an example: Ten people were asked to write for ten minutes expanding this sentence. “A boy was so upset by his parent’s divorce that it tinged his whole life mentally and emotionally.”

The ten people came up ten completely different story versions. Each person saw the situation in a personal light and created a different story!”

“I get it, we all see situations from different angles because we are looking at things through OUR eyes, hence the originality!”

“Correct.”

“What is the basic thing we need to write good?”

“Well, we must learn and grow. We need strong beliefs, convictions and opinions because they are the basis of our writing. All our writing is about persuasion. We are trying to persuade our reader to see the world with our eyes, to agree that our story is either tragic or comedic. So, we need to know what our beliefs and convictions are on the major problems of life.”

“Can you put all this information in a nut shell?”

“The writer knows there are times when he must have solitude, time to daydream and time to sit idle. Then the time for silence is gone and you have reached the moment when you must write to exercise the vision!”

“Great, I can’t wait to start writing!”

“And finally remember:

ADAM WAS THE ONLY PERSON WHO COULD SAY SOMETHING THAT WAS TRULY ORIGINAL!

I was sitting in my scriptorium (study), one afternoon, gazing out the window, daydreaming! When there was a heavy knock at my front door. Startled out of my idea-catching mode, I went to the door, opened it, and there stood my Long Lost Cousin. He is no longer long lost, because we found each other a few years ago. I ushered him into the scriptorium. I sat in my swivel chair and he plunked himself down on the settee.

“What’s on your mind, cousin?”

“Well, you know I read your blog stories all the time, and I’ve read your ebook, so I like your writing and want to be a writer myself!”

“Do you want a drink, cousin?”

“No, thank you, I want to stay sober because I’m going to do a little writing later.”

“Thank you for your loyalty and the compliment. Have you written anything recently?”

“Yes, I’ve tried my hand at a few short stories. The few people that have read them, including my wife, said they were okay. But I question, can I write?” LLC looked confused.

“Well cousin, there are a few measurements available to see if you can write.”

“Such as?” LLC said eagerly.

“Lets first take “Technical Proficiency”, how well you understand the component elements of writing. Such as dialogue, description, exposition, characterization, punctuation, grammar and narrative.”

“Oh boy, that’s a lot of elements?”

“That’s not all of them, also you have chronology, flashbacks and backstory, show or tell, tense and point of view.”

“You need to know all that?” LLC looked worried.

“Of course, cousin, if you want to write well. Every element melds together flawlessly to create a powerful impression on the reader!”

“So, it’s like magic?”

“That’s right, “The Writer’s Magic”. You can get your reader excited, scared, angry and full of emotion. But they never see how you did the trick!”

“Anything else?”

“Yes, next comes “Structural Proficiency”, the more word count you have, the more demands on the writer. You have to understand pace, storyline, character arcs, suspense, conflict and twists.”

“What kind of writer are you, cousin?”

“Well cousin, I’m a blend of two types. I like to write chronologically sometimes and other times I prefer to write bits of the story separately, here and there and everywhere. Just so I don’t lose the thread of the storyline!”

“When I came this afternoon, were you writing?”

“Actually, I was daydreaming, which is part of the writing process.”

“How’s that, cousin?”

“Daydreaming is one source that a writer has to draw his material from. The writer creates a world of fantasy, like a child at play, he then invests all his emotions into it, while separating it from reality.”

“Boy, this is interesting stuff, cousin,” said LLC, his eyes sparkling, “Tell me more.”

“A writer sometimes takes a strong experience in the present and it awakens a memory from his past, maybe childhood, from which he now proceeds to write about a wish, a daydream, which finds fulfillment in his story!”

“So, after all that, what are the problems that a writer has just starting out like me?”

“The problems are personality problems. The writer starts a story but loses heart, gets stuck and is blocked. Sometimes he writes good and sometimes he writes very bad! It’s frustrating! In other words, they are problems of confidence, self-respect, the demons of the subconscious, where a lot of our ideas come from.”

“Lots of problems then?”

“Yes, but you can work hard and get rid of the habits of thought that impede your progress. In other words, strengthen your right side of the brain, which handles expressive and creative tasks.”

“Any final words before I leave?”

“Yes, cousin, they are on the light side. I asked a guy, the other day, what he did for a living.

“I’m a brain surgeon, what do you do?”

“I’m a writer,” I said.

“Oh, that’s what I think I’ll do when I retire,” said the surgeon, matter-of-factly.

“That’s interesting,” I said, “When I retire I want to be a brain surgeon!”

MY COUSIN LEFT THE BUILDING!

My Long Lost Cousin and I were seated on our favorite green padded stools in our favorite watering hole.

“My watch has stopped again,” said LLC.

“Better put it in for repair.”

“No, no, cousin, all my clocks in my house are stopping intermittently, lately!”

“Are there ghosts in your house?’ I laughed.

“I’ve also had a lot of déjà vu lately and premonitions too. I think I have a gift!”

“What kind of gift is that?”

“The gift of ESP of course, cousin!”

“Oh no, not another Paranormal in the family!”

My cousin nodded and smiled.

“Do you really believe in that hokum?” I said.

“Yes, I do. You and I are different, cousin. Remember I predicted my granddad’s death on his 90^th birthday, and it happened! I still see him in my dreams.”

“Any other experiences?” I prompted.

“Yes, in a diner, the other day, I ordered a ham sandwich on rye with cheddar cheese. But a few moments later, I thought I would rather have provolone cheese on it. I didn’t bother to change my order. When the waitress returned with my sandwich, it had provolone on it! She must have received my thoughts.”

“Well, I know there is a lot of ESP experiences going around. It amazes me WHY so many people believe even though the evidence for ESP is unreliable according to scientists.”

“Why is that, cousin?”

“Since you’ve been talking a lot, lately, about your weird experiences, I’ve been thinking about the reason why credulity is so high even though science rebuts it.”

“You read a lot about ESP in the papers and magazines,” said LLC.

“You’ve hit the nail on the head there, cousin.”

“I have?”

“Yes, you have. Spectacular stories of paranormal activity are well reported in the media. It sells newspapers, magazines and books. So people are more likely to read about support for ESP than see or hear any evidence that will challenge its validity.”

“It almost seems like I “WILL” myself to believe,” said my cousin.

“That’s another interesting point. Shall we have another drink? Bartender, another beer for my cousin and I think this time I’ll have a whiskey on the rocks.”

We both took a sip of our drinks and savored them!

“Now, about people’s WILL to believe in ESP. The existence of ESP gives people COMFORT because it suggests that there is a “greater reality” a “spirit life”, if you will, that we don’t fully understand.”

“What are you saying, cousin?”

“I’m saying that people like the possibility for some part of us to survive death! Most people would want a slice of immortality and ESP keeps that dream alive!”

“That’s all very interesting. Anymore explanations for ESP?”

“Yes, now that you ask, we all have an “outer space” and an “inner space”. Our  “outer space” is the world outside ourselves, our society. Our “inner space” is accessed through introspection and meditation. It opens up a perspective of our mind and spirit. You and I, cousin, are the total of all of our past experiences and lessons learned and this starts memories to resurface! It’s this “inner space” that supposedly triggers your ESP!”

I stopped for air and then ordered another beer and whiskey.

“I’ll pass on the beer, cousin, I have to go now. But I’ve discovered the difference between you and me. I TALK TO SPIRITS AND YOU DRINK THEM!”

“I want to write the story of my life, but I want it to be interesting!”

This is what a writer friend of mine said to me recently.

“Well, do you want to fictionalize it, like a blend of truth and fiction?” I offered.

“I don’t know, where is the line?”

“Are you saying your life story is boring?”

“Not entirely, it just needs a little embellishing.”

“So, you want to exaggerate the truth to make it more juicy?”

“Right, I might change some events altogether.”

“So, now you want to sell your life story as a novel.”

“Sounds good to me. It might sell then!”

“But will your life story be believable if you exaggerate too much?”

“I don’t see why not. Some say there’s a bearded man in the sky who created everything in seven days! Yet the same people say unicorns and fairies don’t exist!”

I smiled: “I know there’s a lot of conflicting ideas about truth and fiction in our so called “logical” world!”

“The dictionary says fiction is an invented story, not real. Truth is defined as accurate, conforming to fact, agreement with reality.”

We both were pondering those two words for a few minutes.

“Well, I think fiction actually comes from truth! Your fiction comes from incidents of truth. The incidents might be exaggerated and stretched to make them more interesting.”

“So, fiction is an escape from the boring truth of the world.”

“You could put it that way!”

“Many authors fictionalized their autobios. Dickens did with “David Copperfield”. F. Scott Fitzgerald did it in a couple of his novels, but they were considered fiction.”

“Why did they do it?”

“Probably, too many demons in their lives made them uncomfortable. Maybe through fiction they could tell the truth without humiliating themselves.”

“I’m still confused,” said my writer friend, “I want to make my life story interesting but real!”

“Well, what do we do when we write fiction?”

He thought about it for a minute and said: “We invent characters and events that feel real to the reader.”

“Right, spot on!”

My writer friend smiled.

“Now, one way to make it seem real is to use exaggerated autobio details.”

“Maybe this dilemma of truth or fiction or a mixture is getting clearer.”

“Most novelists incorporate pieces of their lives in their stories to ground their friction in reality.”

“So, to convert the truth to fiction, use the juiciest bits in your life and toss the uninteresting parts in the bin. This way you can use a piece of truth to its fictional advantage.”

Writer friend seemed satisfied!

“I’ve put a lot of “me” into my stories and sometimes the ratio of truth to fiction is very small.”

Someone once said: “Imagination and fiction make up more than three quarters of our life!”

“Well, I guess I will start on my autobiographical fictional life story. I probably won’t even recognize it as MY LIFE!”