A friend sent this link below with this comment:

"There's an amusing article by Lynne Truss (best known as the author of
_Eats, Shoots and Leaves_) about the relative virtues of researching
one's subject and creating a plausible fiction without direct
knowledge of it. I found a number of points provocative, including her
final anecdote about an "unrealistic" bit she had left in one of her
monologues because it had actually happened, and how she now regretted
it."

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/magazine/6339747.stm

I notice the very first comment talks about believability. And I wonder
whether we shouldn't be pointing out that absolute accuracy is quite another
matter than believability. Even the believability is a pretty subjective
concept. I do sometimes wonder if we as writers have forgotten that lovely
phrase "suspension of disbelief".

I am beginning to wonder if we are giving our readers too little credit for
understanding what they are reading is fiction.. i.e. it didn't really
happen.

Nan Hawthorne
www.nanhawthorne.com