The thing about writing is that you want it to be true. If it's nothing else, this is what it should be.
Ironically, though, you don't want to make it too true.
This excerpt from my new book should show you what happens when writing gets too true...
There was a book they made us read in high school by William Golding, titled Lord of the Flies. In it, a bunch of boys get stranded on an island. The boys turn on each other and violence ensues. My teacher told us that the book addresses what happens when there are no rules. “What do we do without rules? We need rules!” But I stood there, on the roadside beside the looming form of this immense polar bear, and I realized that, even with rules, we humans have done a pretty good job of botching everything up. We have rules that allow us to be selfish. Rules that allow atrocities. Rules that allowed Bhopal and Chernobyl and global warming and Auschwitz. What good are the rules if they meant no one had to help out a guy and his polar bear just make one phone call for help?
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