Honesty, shmonesty

Telling the truth in your writing is important, sure, but nowhere near as important as you'd think. Here's what matters more.

I’m sure that someone, somewhere, at some point has given you writing advice along the lines of “write what is true.”

If this person was trying to say, “please don’t pull a Stephen Glass in your work of purported nonfiction,” I agree.

If what they were saying was, “do not abet dysfunction in your writing,” I agree with that too. There’s no need to write a…