At first, I debated this advice: Why not tell the truth in story? I try to be honest in my daily life, so why would I be otherwise in my books? Nonfiction writers, you always tell the truth, so keep debating the idea. But fiction and memoir writers, listen up. There's something to this.
Consider that story often starts with false ideas, an unstable status quo, or agreements that are worn out and need replacing. In my classes, we look at something called the "false agreement" that characters embrace at the beginning of their narrative.