The point here is to convey a feeling; it doesn’t matter if story is real. This example, as much as it breaks my heart to tell you, was real. Many of things that I write about are. Not all of them are personal experiences. A large number of them are not—they are real experiences that somebody else has shared with me.

I dare not compare myself with another person, for that is surely a sin. I am who I am, no better or worse than my brother. We are at different places in our experience. Instead, I choose to share emotions with my readers. My task is not to listen with my ears, but with my soul, and then simply to share emotions. For me to be able to find meaningful words, I have to become person I am writing about. Just as mother cried while she spoke, so did I when I became her.

Some say that you can never feel another person’s pain; That is a lie. Empathy is most basic human quality that we possess. The crime is that most of us refuse to empathize, because somehow we believe that we are above or immune to what happens to our friends and neighbors. Acknowledgement opens door to fear. But to deny that sky rains or cold winter wind blows through passage of time within our lives deadens senses. What is life, if not experience?

Never will a single word convey a feeling unless you believe it first. Consider yourself blessed when other human beings open themselves up to you in their most private moments. If you can, take way you feel then and put it into words. Sometimes you will laugh and sometimes you will cry, but it will be truth. Embellish locations and conceal characters, but hold true to emotion.

The technique that I favor is what I call “the swing.” The readers get a gentle push going forward, rising above ground and picking up speed, until that instant when they are weightless. As they come back to a place they cannot see, they trust me to catch them and send them off again, this time higher. Going backward is as much a part of ride as going forward. Readers don’t want to fall or crash into a tree or get sick; they want to have fun. That is my job: to let them have fun. A reader wants an experience, an honest alternative. If in writing I can convey to them a word of truth that will help them to live their life in a fuller manner, so much better.

If I lie about what I write, they will know. I cannot hide behind any word or page that is untrue. Believe in what you write. Believe in yourself. Write for yourself. Share with your readers what you feel and you won’t have to worry about completing story. It will finish itself.