When you are writing a memoir, blog, or other autobiographical material, treat it like a work of fiction inasmuch as the prose matters. Don’t equate basic honesty with detailed accuracy. While the former is admirable and even desirable, the latter could cause you to lose your readers.
Consider, for example, that you wish to relate the story of a pet pig that follows his human companion around the house, calling her Maa-maa. Does the reader really need to know that this vocal little pig belongs to your uncle’s ex-wife’s sister-in-law’s niece Rhonda, a person you met briefly only once and who will never again be mentioned in your memoir? Probably not. So why bore your readers by beginning your charming little story with “My uncle’s ex-wife’s sister-in-law’s niece Rhonda once had a little pig…”?
Since the point of the story is the unusual behavior of this pig, that is what you need to be honest about. (Don’t claim this story is true in an autobiographical account if it is not.) Your relationship to the human involved, however, is of no real significance, so here you may take literary license for the sake of brevity, smoother prose, and preservation of the reader’s sanity. Simply begin your story with “A friend of mine once had a little pig….”
Was Rhonda truly your friend? Maybe, or maybe not. Does it really matter? In relation to the telling of this story, not a bit.
Likewise, if you have always used your parking brake when parking your car on a hill except for one time when you forgot, must you include that snippet of accurately factual information when making the point that you “always” use your parking brake in such situations? Only if your story involves the one time that you forgot and what comic or tragic occurrences resulted from that momentary lapse of memory. Otherwise, it is of no significance.
There is no need to clutter your prose with extremely detailed accounts of events merely for the sake of “honesty” in autobiographical works. My high school chemistry teacher told the class that if we ever saw the words always or never on a true/false question on a chemistry test, just mark it “false” because there was no such thing as “always” or “never” when it came to chemistry. Your readers probably never knew my chemistry teacher and I doubt that your memoir is about chemistry, but I think it is reasonable to assume that our readers realize that “always” and “never” statements are most likely exaggerations that fall under the umbrella of literary license and therefore should be considered “acceptable” even if they do skirt the truth just a bit.
Sure, we read for facts and insights, but we also read for pleasure and entertainment. Try not to let strict adherence to the former spoil the latter for your readers. Go for the romance.
© 2016 Ann Henry, all rights reserved.
Photo: Tropical Moon © 2016 Ann Henry, all rights reserved.