People say this to me somewhat often, even though in real life, I’m very careful about how much (time-wise) I share and to ensure that I’m not either taking over a conversation (always a risk, and people constantly do it to each other) OR being the kind of person that claims if you’ve been to Tenerife, then I’ve been to Elevenerife, even about sad issues and health problems.
In my experience, it seems to be that people say it to me when I cope by using humor. I’m obviously dying, I don’t hide it, but the whole experience is so ridiculous and awful that you HAVE to have a laugh about it, and then people trot out the, “You should write a book” line at me. I’m not sure if they want to know HOW I laugh my way through dying, or WHY I do it (I’m working on that with my therapist, ha - pay your own bloody therapist), or HOW to do it themselves, should they ever need this valuable skill, in which case I should write a book and charge a mint and teach one of those fancy Masterclasses on how to die while laughing like a loon.
It’s partially genetic, though the grandparents that passed it to me are dead now themselves, ha. But my grandfather was the same way - he could tell the story of how he was sent with the Armed Forces and he was only supposed to be gone training domestically a few months, and instead he got home from fighting abroad three years later. Of course, at the time, it was awful for him, but telling the story, he always made it sound like some hilarious paperwork cock-up, and the “fellows in charge” just forgot where they put him for three years, which his mother was very unimpressed with. People were always laughing with him and then telling him to write a book about his life.
I don’t think I’ve ever said it to anyone unless it’s because I thought their life, or something about the way they live it, is interesting enough that I’d read the book (never worried about them lying). Otherwise, it seems an unkind thing to say - if you’re accusing someone of lying, or want to shut them up. Though I know some people do go on a bit. I admit I type long comments on MN, but I always assume people can skip my comments and I type so quickly; I’d NEVER talk this much, especially about myself, in real life.