Ars Longa, Via Brevis

One could easily argue that all fiction is, in some sense, creative non-fiction. After all, a writer doesn't come to the page devoid of experience. And it's that experience-coupled with a dollop or two of imagination (not to mention a whole arsenal of mechanics)-that turns the writer's non-fictional event, at least in the writer's mind, into a story worth telling. If (s)he's lucky, and has perfected his or her craft, it's also a story worth reading. Ah! you may say or think. But what of science or speculative fiction? I'll be the first to concede that both of these genres-if I may consider them separate and distinct genres-require an unusual leap of imagination. Or hallucination. Or at least sleep. But come the witching hour, no writer produces a story worth telling (and worth reading!) out of whole cloth. It just doesn't happen. If a reader can't relate to a story-either because the writer's experience is too alien, or because the writer hasn't mastered the mechanics of writing and story-telling-the story will die a quick death. I firmly believe that a writer owes it to his or her reader to master both skills if that writer is to call him- or herself an author. If (s)he has done so effectively-and particularly in creative non-fiction-let the reader play with the mystery and the intrigue of which elements are fictitious, and which, non-fictitious. And then, let the fiction/no-fiction fun begin!