Writing.Com General Discussion

I have completed the rough draft manuscript for my autobiography. A very good friend who is a professional writer and editor has looked it over and has suggested that I may want to move in the direction of autobiographical novel instead of non-fiction for a couple of reasons. One reason is that a big part of my story is that I m alcoholic and parts of the book will deal with Alcoholics Anonymous and my experiences there. The anonymity of AA can be much easier to deal with as fiction for obvious reasons. Another is that I can build characters and fill missing details of stories if I can take advantage of fictional content.

My biggest concern with going that direction is that the main reason I am doing this project is to get my story into the hands of others who are dealing with the issues I have and let them know they are not alone. I feel that by labeling it fiction it will not have the same reach and effect that calling it non-fiction would. In other words if I read something inspiring but know it is fiction I will probably not get the same effect I would if the author is saying it is all true.

So, I guess my real question to this community is to get input from those who have written fiction or non-fiction that deals with AA. The other input I would like is about the motivational and inspirational efficacy of fiction vs non-fiction for those suffering from similar issues to mine.