In order to write fiction a writer must first believe she is writing fiction, and thus armored in the belief that she is writing fiction, she can pass some hours believing she is doing nothing more than making things up— yet if all goes well the writer will write something that is not quite fiction, some personal item or admission she would not have written if she had known any better, something she could have only written under the safe delusion that she was writing fiction, and it is in this way that the writer tries and fails to hide from herself, and it is in this way that she realizes the futility of trying to write fiction, and after this realization some hours or a full night’s sleep must pass before she can forget this recurrent self-betrayal in order to again write fiction.