that 1) writing about the UNKNOWN , something you do not about, purely based on imagination and your very personal ideas is FICTION. and 2) writing about what YOU know, as in you have experienced personally or lived, not something you have read about seen or heard on the media or books or people is NON FICTION?
If something is presented as fiction, it is fiction. If it's presented as non-fiction, then it's non-fiction.
if it's about people and things/events that are made up, or written about in ways that do not exactly gibe with reality, then it's fiction, no matter what the writer may know about, have experienced, etc.... if it's about real events, with nothing added that did not take place, then it's non-fiction... the distinction has nothing to do with what the writer may know first-hand, or imagine/make up, but only what s/he writes... most fiction writers include things they know and have experienced/seen for themselves... but since those bits are tossed into all kinds of other stuff they made up, the resulting piece of work is 'fiction' period, though some could carry the caveat 'based on real events'...
