Storytelling has existed since the beginning of humankind. Our stories are the connective tissue that holds humanity and possibly even the universe together. Poet and activist Muriel Rukeyser famously wrote, “The Universe is made of stories, not of atoms." Every person on this planet has a unique life path and therefore an interesting tale to share, and yet so many of us struggle with whether or not we have the right to tell our stories. We are silenced by the fear upsetting others, mainly our family, in writing our truth.
Who Owns The Truth?
I
begin my book Fire Season with this note:
“In my extended family, arguing over versions of our
history is practically a blood sport. My relatives will wrestle each other to
the mat about the way it all went down. In reality, there is no such thing as
absolute truth, only our personal interpretations of it. Each of us sees life
through our own unique lens. The best way I’ve ever heard it described was by a
woman I met in a writing group. She said as her mother lay dying, she and her
sister sat on either side of the hospital bed, holding their mother’s hands. At
the moment of her passing, the sisters spoke simultaneously. One said, “She’s
gone cold!” The other said, “She’s still warm.” And both statements were true
to the women who made them.
I do my best, as a flawed and complex person myself, to write
with compassion and understanding. There are no heroes or villains in my books,
only imperfect humans doing the best they can. Mine is not the elusive absolute
truth, but it is my truth.”
The bottom line is that you own the rights to your life story. No one else can shape it, or write it
like you can. Your story is the only thing of true value that you own--
the one thing that can’t be taken from you. Cherish that.
Write
Honest Characters:
In
memoir writing, it’s important to write with objectivity. If I portray myself
as the hero and someone who wronged me as a one-dimensional Hitler, the reader
is not going to believe it, and the story won’t work. Even Hitler had a dog he loved. That’s the interesting part.
Every character is rich with contradictions. Our job is to find those
contradictions and flesh them out -- to portray each character as a whole human
being. Fiction writers climb inside each character, listen to their voices.
Every character comes to a scene with his or her own agenda. Even in memoir, we
need to get behind the agenda of each character. Let’s say you’re writing about
your mother (and honestly, who isn’t?). The message of the book can’t be “My
agenda was to be happy but my mother’s agenda was to make me miserable.” From
your perspective, that may be true, but certainly that was not your mother’s
sole agenda in life. A powerful writing exercise is to try writing the scene
from your mother’s point of view, in her voice, then rewrite the scene, from
your perspective but with deeper honesty and a fuller understanding of each
character.