Some authors choose to write stories and novels specifically to evoke certain emotions in their readers instead of writing them just for visual presentation. To do this, they occasionally distort the truth and “distort” the event that actually happened. The Things They Carried, by Tim O'Brien, is a collection of short stories about the Vietnam War in which distortion is a key element in each of them. Several stories into the novel, in the "How to Tell a True War Story" section, "O'Brien begins to warn readers of the lies and exaggerations that can occur when veterans tell war stories." The vapors suck you in. You can't say where you are, or why you're there, and the only certainty is overwhelming ambiguity. In war we lose the sense of what is defined, hence the very sense of truth, and therefore we can state with certainty that in a true war story nothing is ever absolutely true. (Pg.88) He states that as a soldier, there is so much to absorb from war scenes that everything becomes a confusing mess. Therefore, the story of the moment can be different from each soldier's perspective due to the parts where each man inserts his own ideas. This leads to some speculation as to whether O'Brien's stories are true or false. One of the later entries in the book, called "Good Form", helps alleviate suspicion of dishonesty in the stories by bluntly telling the reader that all of the other entries are a mix of fact and fiction. O'Brien feels the need to make up parts of his stories because he wants the reader to experience emotions instead of mental images. He describes these emotionally charged scenes as “truth-story” because they are part story and part truth. The parts that are just for emotion... in the center of the paper... or himself with fillers to shape and create the people he imagined them to be. At this point, readers can fully understand why the distortion occurred in the book because O'Brien writes his thoughts as the book progresses. As O'Brien learns more about his reasons for being an author, the reader learns more about why his war stories wouldn't be the same if he hadn't altered them. Stories, whether real or manipulated, present different things to the reader. . Factual writing helps readers visualize the real moment, but may not make them feel the way the author felt. Manipulated writings, however, are superior in that emotion through writing can actually help readers see a situation for what it really is. Distortions in manipulated writing are beneficial to the reader because they provide more sensory images, even at the cost of presenting the complete truth.