Nonfiction vs. Fiction

      Sol Stein is a brilliant man, but one thing he wrote wouldn't prove that. In his book Sol Stein on Writing, he stated,

Nonfiction conveys information.
Fiction evokes emotion.

      Oversimplification is the false economy of writing. Stein's simple distinction between nonfiction and fiction doesn't account for the "Aha Factor" of well-written nonfiction, or the emotion elicited by a difficult truth. And it neglects the skillful fiction writer's ability to vividly set the story's scene without overloading the reader with information.
      No, the distinction between the two is far more fundamental than that. It's the forest you can't see for the trees, the information you can't see for the story, and the story that's hidden in the information.