A Good Story Beats the Truth

A satisfying narrative gives scattered events a memorable shape. Once that version is repeated, its coherence becomes easy to mistake for confirmation: people inherit the telling without inheriting the uncertainty behind it. This is the danger behind Narrative Fallacy: a story may organize facts, but organization is not proof. The writer supplies the plot; repetition supplies authority.

A compelling account is not automatically false, and a dull account is not automatically accurate. The warning applies when narrative quality substitutes for checking the underlying claims—not whenever history is told vividly.