What is Truth?
The first time I wrote a family memoir, my older brother argued with me about the way things happened. He remembered things just a little differently and of course, he thought his memory was/is superior to mine. (Never mind that he is in his sixties and constantly confuses me with his daughter, so much so that my name has become "Tracie-I, uh, mean-Joyce.")
Anyway, his argument brings up a question that many people struggle with as they write their life stories. Author/memoirist Maureen Murdock even wrote a book about it (Unreliable Truth: On Memoir and Memory, 2003). She makes the point that when we write from memory, we may not remember the exact words that people said, or the specific colors splaying across the sky at dusk, or the if the food was Korean or Vietnamese. But so what? The truth that is important in memoir is not so much factual truth as it is emotional truth. How did we feel when we were experiencing an event (e.g., earning our first merit badge in Scouts, picking out our first car, getting our first traffic ticket, failing a test, winning an award) and how did the event change us (e.g., gave us confidence, taught us responsibility, helped us understand the concept of consequences).
Emotional truth is very individualist, so in writing our life stories, the question becomes Whose truth is it? And the answer to that question is simple: It is the writer's truth.
So when my brother questions the truth of one of my stories, I just pat him on the shoulder and say, "You tell your story your way, and I'll tell my story mine."
Memoirist Mary Jane Moffat (City of Roses: Stories from Girlhood, 1986) makes the distinction between factual history and artistic truth. Author Toni Morrison has been quoted saying that making things up and sticking to facts are two different things, but that you need both to get to the truth. Tristin Rainer (Your Life as Story, 1997) reminds us that the ultimate meaning of life stories is not hidden in the literal facts, but rather in the emotional truth.
In writing life stories, then, it is important to be authentic and real about the emotional truth--something that many celebrities tend to gloss over in their tell-all books. However, I believe the reason that memoirs by everyday folks like you and me are so popular in our culture and in literature today is because of the emotional truth we reveal in our stories. Readers may not have the exact experience as the author of a memoir, but they sure identify with the feelings.
Bottom line: Write from the heart and keep it real.
Anyway, his argument brings up a question that many people struggle with as they write their life stories. Author/memoirist Maureen Murdock even wrote a book about it (Unreliable Truth: On Memoir and Memory, 2003). She makes the point that when we write from memory, we may not remember the exact words that people said, or the specific colors splaying across the sky at dusk, or the if the food was Korean or Vietnamese. But so what? The truth that is important in memoir is not so much factual truth as it is emotional truth. How did we feel when we were experiencing an event (e.g., earning our first merit badge in Scouts, picking out our first car, getting our first traffic ticket, failing a test, winning an award) and how did the event change us (e.g., gave us confidence, taught us responsibility, helped us understand the concept of consequences).
Emotional truth is very individualist, so in writing our life stories, the question becomes Whose truth is it? And the answer to that question is simple: It is the writer's truth.
So when my brother questions the truth of one of my stories, I just pat him on the shoulder and say, "You tell your story your way, and I'll tell my story mine."
Memoirist Mary Jane Moffat (City of Roses: Stories from Girlhood, 1986) makes the distinction between factual history and artistic truth. Author Toni Morrison has been quoted saying that making things up and sticking to facts are two different things, but that you need both to get to the truth. Tristin Rainer (Your Life as Story, 1997) reminds us that the ultimate meaning of life stories is not hidden in the literal facts, but rather in the emotional truth.
In writing life stories, then, it is important to be authentic and real about the emotional truth--something that many celebrities tend to gloss over in their tell-all books. However, I believe the reason that memoirs by everyday folks like you and me are so popular in our culture and in literature today is because of the emotional truth we reveal in our stories. Readers may not have the exact experience as the author of a memoir, but they sure identify with the feelings.
Bottom line: Write from the heart and keep it real.
posted by Joyce, of course at 1:52 PM
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