We are all weavers of our destiny. We are all reading our life as its plot, theme, and larger story unfolds before us. Or, we might say, taking in the woof and warp of the tapestry as it falls into place. Some of us are just more aware of the loom and the materials at hand.
I contend that no matter whether you write fiction (short stories or novels) or creative non-fiction (essays, memoirs, magazine features), the same set of rules applies to the 
craft and art of good writing (where good = readable, compelling, digestible, interesting, entertaining, informative, perturbing, moving, rewarding, satisfying, and more). For, even in telling the “truth,” as in memoir, you are always recalling, remembering, reconstructing the past. You consciously or unconsciously choose the details to emphasize, the accent, importance, emphasis to give events, facts, persons, and you set the tempo, pacing in hindsight. In other words, the filter of sense, perception, conception, interpretation is not much different from the filter at work in fiction. The mechanics of language is true in fiction, even if imagined, even if you sink into the depths of yourself to shape the stuff of nighttime dreams. All writing is based on the experiential even if that experience is imagined. In sum, if you are not bringing art to bear on the least piece of writing, you are missing one of life’s great opportunities, free to every last one of us.