In English, We Say 'I Write Fiction'
In English, we say, "I write fiction."
In poetry, what we mean is
I'm bleeding quietly, but I've made it into a rhyme.
We call it fiction because it's easier
than saying this happened to me.
Because the truth, when written raw,
feels like standing naked in a crowded room.
So we hand our pain to strangers,
dress it up in pretty lines,
and pretend it's someone else's story.
Eighty percent of the time,
it's not imagination
it's a memory in disguise.
A heartbreak reworded,
a joy replayed,
a fear rewritten until it feels like art.
And when they ask,
"What inspired this?"
we smile and say,
"Oh, it's fiction."
But deep down we know
every writer is just someone
who learned how to hide their truths
in plain sight.
We give our protagonist a different name,
change the setting from our bedroom to Paris,
make the ending hopeful when ours wasn't.
We call it creative license
when really it's self-preservation
taking what broke us
and breaking it differently on paper
so maybe this time it makes sense.
The poems about longing?
Those are letters I never sent.
The ones about loss?
Eulogies for things still breathing.
The love poems?
Confessions I'm too afraid
to say without a metaphor standing guard.
I write about a girl who fell first
and call her fictional
because admitting she's me
means admitting I'm still harbouring
the burden of wanting someone
who existed just fine without me.
I write about grief like it's a character
when really it's my roommate,
the one who doesn't pay rent
but refuses to leave.
I write about faith and doubt
like they're debating in some abstract space
when really they're wrestling
in my chest at 3am
while I'm trying to pray.
Fiction is just the mask we wear
so the world won't ask too many questions.
So they won't look at us with pity
or worse, recognition.
So they won't say,
"Oh, you're the girl from that poem,"
“Oh that happened to you? Crazy!”
and suddenly we're exposed,
suddenly we're accountable
for all the feeling we put into words.
We write fiction
because nonfiction requires courage
we're still gathering.
Because saying "this is real"
means someone might say
"that's not how I remember it"
or "you're being dramatic"
or "it wasn't that deep."
So we hide behind imagination.
We claim invention.
We say we made it all up
even though anyone who knows us
can trace the bloodline
from our lives to our lines.
My colleague once told me,
"Writers don't lie, they just tweak the words
until it's bearable."
And she was right.
Every story I've written
is just my life
with the names changed
and the endings edited
to feel less like failure.
Every poem is a diary entry
I've dressed up for company.
Every character is some version of me
the brave one I wish I was,
the reckless one I'm afraid to be,
the broken one I'm trying to fix
by giving her a better story than mine.
So yes, I write fiction.
But this fiction is just a truth
that learned to wear lipstick,
a truth that got a makeover,
a truth that decided
it didn't want to be recognized
at the grocery store.
Fiction is honesty
with a pseudonym.
It's me telling you everything
while pretending I'm telling you nothing.
It's the safest way I know
to be vulnerable
to bleed in public
but call it performance art.
And maybe that's what all writing is:
a way to confess without confessing,
to scream without making a sound,
to say "this hurt me"
without having to watch you
decide what to do with that information.
So when you read my work
and something feels familiar,
when a line lands too close
to home,
when you think,
"She must have lived this"
You're right.
I did.
I just called it fiction
so I could survive
telling you the truth.
_Fiction(灬º‿º灬)♡


Love this so much🌹...
Wow... I don't want to say anything, before I over spill...🤧