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I hope to be a writer one day. It's something I've enjoyed doing ever since I was a child. I think it branches from my need to tell a story. That's what writing is after all, telling stories. Some stories stretch the imagination and take the reader to a place of fantasy. Other stories are meant to inspire and reveal certain truths. A good writer always tells a good story. However, is telling a good story a writer's only responsibility? I think not. When writing a work intended to be published as non-fiction, I think a writer has the responsibility to tell the truth.

James Frey's A Million Little Pieces, his memoir on overcoming a drug addiction, was the second best selling book of 2005. Recently it was discovered that many of the "personal" accounts in the book were completely fabricated. It's unknown exactly how much of Frey's experiences are lies. The book gained notoriety when it became part of Oprah's book club. At first, Oprah ran to Frey's defense, claiming that the inspiring nature of the story made up for its lack of truth. She later apologized for her statements, saying, "I left the impression that the truth is not important" (Brownsworth C1).

The truth is important. Just ask anyone who has ever been lied to. People feel manipulated, duped, deceived, and angry. Sometimes they may feel stupid for believing it. This is exactly how many felt after A Million Little Pieces was revealed to be a fabrication. When readers go to a non-fiction shelf at a bookstore, they expect to find more than a good story. They expect a true story. A Million Little Pieces made James Frey a lot of money. When he wrote what he knew were fabrications, he was intending to deceive people. In my opinion, he has committed the crime of fraud. He obtained money through deliberate deception ("Fraud").

Not only did Frey, and many other authors like him, make money from deceiving his readers, he made money from other peoples experiences. In a way, he stole other people's lives for profit. In her article, "Their lives, their lies", journalist Victoria Brownsworth gives several examples of this type of gross fabrication. The ironically titled The Heart is Deceitful Above All Things was supposed to be a true tale of the author's life as a boy prostitute living with AIDS. In 2005, it was found that the author was actually a woman posing for the real authors, who were a married couple living in San Francisco. In the case of Native American writer Nadijj,

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