When Does A Writer Become A Liar?

(image via Wikimedia)

Telling the truth can be counterproductive for a writer.  Even when authors are writing something that’s supposedly “based on a true story,” they might embellish a little.  They sometimes make up dialogue because people usually aren’t as witty in real life as they are on paper.

Writers might leave out crucial details to make one person look worse than he or she is (or make him or look worse).  They might make up details that no normal person would remember, like weather and clothing, just to make readers feel like they’re part of the story.  Without these details, the truth could seem to be downright boring.

Some authors don’t even use their reals names.  Samuel Clemens wrote his books as Mark Twain.  Or was it the other way around?  Stephen King started off his writing career as Richard Bachman.  Some female authors like S.E. Hinton and J.K. Rowling abbreviate their first names so that male readers don’t get turned off by reading a female author.   Male author Dan Mallory used the pseudonym A.J. Finn for his novel The Woman in the Window so that readers would think he was female (I think… I might have misremembered that).

I’m pretty sure Dan Mallory lied about having brain cancer, though, and that’s probably worse than using an unethical(?) pseudonym.

At any rate, part of writing is being just a little bit dishonest.  Authors like to call it creative liberty.  A little embellishment can make stories, even those based on actual events, much more interesting.  But at what point does embellishment become outright lying?