I'm kind of re-assessing something. Sorry to be circumspect. Long story short it's an open secret I've had for a while that I've posted about here and there but I've been careful not to promote very hard because I want to be known as a storyteller, not a person who exploits tragedies.

Say you'd been out of work for years, in a lot of debt, and having trouble finding a job.

The thing is, you've got this experience that you could probably make money talking about, but it's the sort of thing that you'd look like an insincere person just trying to make a buck if you claimed it was true because it can't be proved and a lot of people have made bogus claims of a similar nature. Also, it involves a rather tragic event that might rub some people the wrong way if you were to be seen as profiting from it.

It's the sort of thing that would make you a magnet for people who enjoy white knighting against anyone they believe is a fraud, and making money in the process would only validate their suspicions. You could and probably will face ridicule, questions about your sanity, and doubts about the reliability of your memory, testimony, or general fitness for a normal life. Generally, it's the sort of thing that might lead to a very real loss of respect.

On the other hand, you've never been able to cut it with a normal life and people already question your sanity. You've been struggling for years, just trying to get a scrap of the middle class life your parents had but getting nowhere because you have a very passive personality. You're out of money and out of ideas.

Also, suppose this experience had defined the very person you are, and was woven into the very fabric of your being, and someone can't fully understand you or your motives without understanding this experience.

Do you:

A. Do something creative with your experience but pass it off as fiction, hoping that it's a cool enough story in its own right to not need an extraordinary claim?

B. Compartmentalize the hell out of your life and leave it entirely in the dark?

C. Sell the story as true, but take only what you need and give the rest to charity?

D. Damn the torpedoes and sell the story as true with a hope toward getting a slice of the good life you've never had?

E. Spend years hesitating and worrying about which of the above you should do without ever committing to a course of action?

F. Something else entirely? If so, what?

Feedback appreciated. I need to know if it's selling out when you really are in a bind.