Truth in Memoir Writing

[Marjorie Price]

The topic of truth in a memoir is a complex and interesting one. I'm curious to know what other writers & readers think about it.

When I wrote my memoir about living in France in the 1960s, "A Gift from Brittany," I found that writing the book and preserving the truth of what happened were part of a balancing act. The strength of the memoir is that it is bound to the truth. But a memoir is not a diary; it is based on the truth, and at the same time, it must be a good story. Memoir writing means finding a balance between telling your honest perspective and also writing about what happened in such a way as to engage a reader.

Fiction is also rooted in a personal truth, but it involves flights-of-fancy and the flexibility of imagination. If you are compelled to write a memoir, there must be a reason why fiction is an inadequate form. Often, the truth of the events are even more remarkable than what we can make up.

I look forward to your comments & discussion.

Marjorie Price

[Sara]

I'm following a similar discussion on Amazon: When memoir blends with fiction (http://tinyurl.com/mhnjl3). With my own memoir, I felt fine taking some artistic liberty as long as I kept to the spirit of truth. There was nothing in my story that was completely made up, but I did have to fill in the blanks a bit. I was writing from my earliest memories and may have presented some thoughts or events somewhat out of sequence or perhaps not quite at the right time.

sara
strange little girl: memoirs of a sad-eyed lady
http://saramcgrath.blogspot.com/

[Sandy Vaughan]

memories are sometimes like snowflakes...i know my sister remembers shared events differently or not at all. so i take that into consideration when i read a memoir. when i read one, i am look at the event thru the writer's take. a biography is more fact based...there are ways to back everything up. well, kids, that is my 2 cents.

[Marjorie Price]

Sandy, I agree with you that each of us sees the past through our own prism. The fact that you and your sister have different remembrances of the same events is a perfect example. As long as the writer of a memoir is true to his/her perspective of the past, the memoir is honest. It betrays the truth when the writer alters facts, invents characters who didn't exist or portrays real people differently than they actually were. Of course, Sara, in her memoir, had to fill in the blanks of her early childhood, but as long as she was true to the spirit of that child, she kept her promise. In my memoir, I wrote about people and events that happened forty years ago. The more I wrote, the more I relived that time of my life; I remembered long forgotten details, conversations — even facial expressions. The past came back to life for me. I don't know if that's typical. But that's how it was for me.

Marjorie Price
A Gift from Brittany
http://www.marjorieprice.com

[Sara]

While writing my memoir, I certainly remembered things I thought I had forgotten. When I gave it to my sister to read, I warned her that she might remember things differently than I did, but after reading it, she said it was exactly how she remembered it. That surprised me since I wasn't quite sure of some of the memories.

[Bill Birnbaum]

A couple of thoughts on this subject... First, none of us (who write memoirs) knows the actual truth.  All we know is what we remember.  And memory is never exact. 

 

Second... In writing my memoir, I took a few liberties... If I were writing about a person in a favorable light, I'd use their full name.  If writing in an unfavorable light, then first name only.  In one of my stories, I had two characters named Fred.  As I felt this might be confusing for the reader, I re-named one of them Arnie.  And then there's the matter of writing about something I didn't remember at all.  I wanted to "paint a picture" of two college friends and I being under-dressed while attending a formal affair.  So I described one of us wearing a green sweater and another wearing tennis shoes.  I simply made up those details.  Yes, we were in fact under-dressed at that event all those years ago.  Was one of us wearing a green sweater and another tennis shoes?  Who knows?  But I made my point and I didn't harm anyone in the process.  Bill