Verisimilitude: How Illusions, Confidence Games, and Skillful Lying can Improve Your Fiction

In terms of objective reality, a work of fiction is an elaborate lie. No writer thinks of themselves as a liar simply because they write fiction, but that's the fact of the matter. And no other writing guide will admit to teaching you to be a better writer by showing you how to be a better liar - at least in a narrative sense.

A good lie rings true. Verisimilitude, or the appearance of truth, is critical in a novel because readers open the book knowing it is fiction. Their willingness to sus...