Me: Fiction is, by choice and by design, the opposite of fact.

Jim Carrol: Utter nonsense. The best of fiction has its roots in fact.


Fiction is the antonym of fact in every standard reference I own. You?

Having your "roots in fact" is not the same as reliable or accurate fact. It just means the parts not rooted in fact are fiction and until somebody sorts fact from fiction the whole of it is adulterated. It's an unknown. Maybe it is, maybe it ain't.

The fiction process does not produce nonfiction and it is the process that makes the product reliable. The fiction author has few obligations. The fiction process does not require reliability or accuracy. It's optional, sentence by sentence.