Telling the Truth

When I was a tutor on a creative writing course I used to give a spot of advice about writing that I had picked up somewhere - an article in a magazine on psychology maybe, or from Readers' Digest, or the back of a matchbox possibly. It was this: "If you have a problem then tell it in the form of a story."
At the time it seemed a good idea: many of those would-be writers on the course did just that and, let me tell you, we had plenty of people with problems on those courses.
I had the feeling that we helped solve some of the problems they had. One lady had been a quite successful children's writer but then she'd had a nervous breakdown and suffered "writers' block". After a weekend with us she seemed to break the block because she returned to later courses with new stories to read to us. Whether or not she was successful in publishing them I never found out because I decided to do the decent thing and pack in tutoring there - I'd done enough damage by then!
Budding writers are often advised to "write about what you know". This came back to mind this evening as I was starting to write (re-write, rather) a story about a vicar who finds a pair of knickers and a bra in a drawer in a room of an adult education college where he is attending a course on "Morality, Darwin and The Old Testament" (read the story on my website if you wish). This was not based on what I knew: I had never been a vicar, I had never found a pair of knickers and a bra in a drawer in any room etc etc.
My advice now to would-be writers is "try to write a good story, never mind if it's based on your own experience" because telling the truth, telling it as it really was can prove disastrous.
Think Julie Myerson and her new book on her son, his taking drugs and how she and her husband eventually kicked him out their home. Instead of the book drawing favourable reviews it's had the opposite effect: she has become subject to intense criticism and some mockery. Indeed, she now regets her decision to publish the book.
As her son says: "she is a writer and like a lot of writers she is wrapped up in her own world."
Right on, as they say.