Two Months, More or Less

This blog has been back in action now for two months, and I continue to surprise myself with the pace I've been keeping up. My rate of new posts may slack off eventually but it hasn't happened yet. I have a number of upcoming stories on the drawing board; some of them have been there a while, new ones just pop into my head from day to day.

And I'm gratified to see the growing number of return visitors in my stats!

The other day an anonymous commenter asked, "How can we tell which stories are real and which stories are fiction?"

This is a question I've dealt with before. To sum up, the majority of stories here at Tales from the Yellow Hand are fiction, but a number of the stories here are real life accounts of hand over mouth (or other hand related) incidents I've experienced or witnessed myself. On the one hand I don't want to slough over the difference. But on the other hand I haven't been able to figure out a way of indicating the distinction that isn't awkward or pedantic.

Until now, that is. This commenter spurred me to go back and inspect my archives, and I discover a rule of thumb which ought to be fairly reliable. If a story is told in the third person, then it is definitely fiction. While if a story is told in the first person -- narrator speaking as I, me, myself -- then it is very likely a true account of my own experiences.

I find only a handful of exceptions to this rule on my blog: Forced Feeding: A Fantasy, A Handgag Snapshot, A Sighting in the Park, When Tori Holds Me in Her Arms, Blind Date and Jean the Waitress are all told in the first person, but they are fiction. (I hope I'm not missing any in that list.) Any other posts here which I narrate in the first person are true accounts of incidents I myself have experienced or witnessed.

Of course there are the obvious posts that don't fit this dichotomy, such as where I'm discussing things in general, or quoting or linking some other site out there. But I'll try to stick to this rule consistently from now on: fictional stories in the third person, nonfictional stories in the first person.