I always write about my own experiences, whether I've had them or not.
Key to all fiction, long or short, is to remember that the wolfman did not want the moon.
It is philosophically impossible to be an atheist, since to be an atheist you must have infinite knowledge in order to know absolutely that there is no God. But to have infinite knowledge, you would have to be God yourself. It's hard to be God yourself and an atheist at the same time!
The writer is the person who stays in the room.
The big secret is the ability to stay in the room.
The literary story is a story that deals with the complicated human heart with an honest tolerance for the ambiguity in which we live.