Memoir - Truth or Fiction?

It is said that writing one's memoirs is much like writing a piece of fiction.  In order to make your story come alive, you need to populate it with characters that are individuals; well described and round.

Are all characters in a memoir absolutely true to life?

Not necessarily.

There are times when you'll want to disguise your character in the interest of preserving their privacy.  You may also want to save your own skin, especially if you're revealing a secret that you promised long ago to keep. You can write a truthful memoir, and still change names, ages, even sexes of certain characters for these reasons.

Most writers of memoir try to stay as close to the truth of the situation as they possibly can.

But what is truth?

Truth is in the eye of the beholder.  Truth is a matter of perspective. Truth can be different for different people.  If I were to write a memoir of my childhood and my siblings were to do the same, it makes sense that some of the stories would be the same.  What would be different, however, is the perspective of those stories.  My brother and I could write about the very same event, and we could both tell the absolute truth about that event.

The interesting point of this exercise is to demonstrate that truth is different for each person. Our stories would be VASTLY different!

So, when you go to write your memoir, write it as truthfully as you can.  You may know a LARGER truth now that you are older, but in the interest of keeping your perspective in your memoir, try to retain the truth that you knew of the event at the time. This will also help you to determine if you are writing from the perspective of age and wisdom, or if you're re-entering yourself at a younger and greener age, and expressing the truth of the situation from that perspective.

Interesting point of view, isn't it?

Write on,

Kathleen