steals my idea. What the hell? How am I supposed to compete with his blog? It's the New York Yankees of the blogosphere. Good thing I know what being the Royals feels like. I'll just go ahead and say what I planned on saying. Sheesh, Nathan. Thanks. (PS. I totally have a crush on you)
Acquaintances, teachers, random folks - they were all fair game. Sometimes the lies stories worked out better than others. I slept through a final my freshman year of college and came up with an amazing story of how my roommate had an allergic reaction to medication and I was in the emergency room all night. Tears and all. I got to take the test later. I don't know if he believed me or he was so impressed with my ridiculous tale he let it slide. Good thing he didn't ask for the hospital paperwork. That would have been bad.
I lied to a guy I was dating about my, um, sexual experience. That one didn't work out so well. It ended up making my life twenty times harder than it had to be. The majority of the time, though, I didn't tell lies tales to accomplish anything. The stories were simply more interesting than the truth. I loved to think them up, spin them, making people believe something amazing. It didn't matter if it wasn't true. It was real to my listeners.
I am curious, dear readers. How many of you shared my penchant for storytelling, embellishing, and outright lying as a young person? Is it a facet of the writer personality, or am I a deeply disturbed individual? Wait, don't answer that last question. Anything else is fair game.
I wouldn't say deeply disturbed. Slightly disturbed, yes (it's a job requirement for writers), but not deeply.
ReplyDeleteI almost always tell the truth. My big problem though is people sometimes think I'm lying when I start laughing. Much of the time it's because I think they look funny with their inquisitive stare. My lies are much more straight-faced than that (11 years of theatre will do that to you).
Hm, interesting question. I hate lying. Kind of passionately. But I love writing fiction, and not just fiction, ut sci-fi/fantasy/paranormal. I wonder if I'm secretly repressed.
ReplyDeleteLying is bad, unless life threatening. I like to refer to lying as quibbling. Evading the truth, or details of the truth is still a lie. Lying is such an awful word, kind of goes along with the word hate.
ReplyDeleteWriters tell stories, not lies. So don't worry.
Thanks for your thoughts. Matthew - I said DON'T answer the last question. Can't you read? Sheesh. ;)
ReplyDeleteI don't lie anymore. Like Elisabeth and Shane, I hate thinking people might get the wrong idea about me. Writing stories down is much more fun.
Elisabeth - If you are secretly repressed, join the crowd. Repressed is my middle name. Not really. But it should be.
*Raises hand* I was a serious liar when I was younger... serious... Serious...
ReplyDeleteI had to actually make a change... ;)
I am the son of a lawyer and a psychologist, guess if I'm good at it? I learned two things from their professions, everyone manipulates others and everyone lies. Yup, *insert evil laughter here*. Everybody lies, little lies to themselves are the most common, big lies to others are less so (and probably what most people said they stopped doing--which the lawyer part of me says...yea right!).
ReplyDeleteOn a more serious note it took me a long time to really find out who I was because of this little problem. I had a great many aspects of my personality that were completely fabricated, so I really do understand what a problem it is. Who I was would often change based on who I was around at the time. It's a hard lesson for anyone, much less for kiddos.
I love this post. I'm definitely upfront and honest in life now, though high school was filled with not being upfront. I don't know that I necessarily lied outright, but I hid things.
ReplyDeleteThat being said, I love embellishing with my characters and weaving their stories, sometimes from huge exaggerations of real life situations.