Memoirs are almost always written in present tense. If you are uncomfortable about writing in the present tense, writing a novel in the past tense might be easier.
You can also have multiple viewpoints. If you do not want to write from the intimate first person point of view, you may be more comfortable writing a novel in third person. In a memoir, you include the real people in your life. Generally, this means that you have spoken to them about your memoir and they have given you some feedback. This does not mean that you include their viewpoint. It means that you have taken it into account. When you write about other people, tell the story from what you have seen and heard.
It is your experiences you are recounting. Do not make anything up. In a novel, you create completely original character s. A memoir's goal is to help the author explore his memories and arrive at the truth of how the experience changed him. As a result, the tone is often introspective, with more emphasis placed on the author's reflections than developing a cohesive plot, states Davis.
In John Edgar Wideman's essay "Looking for Emmett Till," Wideman explores his powerful emotional connection to Till, an African-American teenager murdered in the south in the s, in an episodic, fragmented reflection. While fiction still reveals truths through themes and morals, its primary purpose is to entertain. Kori Morgan holds a Bachelor of Arts in professional writing and a Master of Fine Arts in creative writing and has been crafting online and print educational materials since She taught creative writing and composition at West Virginia University and the University of Akron and her fiction, poetry and essays have appeared in numerous literary journals.
Characteristics of Narrative Nonfiction. Often writers use their experiences as fodder for novels, and memoir, which is based on life experience, must read like fiction yet not be fictionalized. Writers use the same techniques for fiction and memoir. Yet, while they share the same craft, a memoir writer must stick to the facts while a fiction writer can make them up. Here are the basic details and a link for more details and registration :. Most writers draw from personal experience when they write stories, whether they are casting the story as memoir or fiction.
Many autobiographical novels are slightly altered memoir, and memoirs must use fictional techniques to create a story that draws people in. Since the incident on Oprah with James Frey, writers are overly concerned with defining their genre even as they begin spinning early drafts of their stories.
Sometimes it may be written as it happened and only the names changed. This is probably a bit simplistic as futuristic, sci-fi and fantasy cannot stem from life experience but the reader still has to form a relationship with the characters to gain enjoyment from the reading. The characters must have personality traits that we recognise and like or dislike. Apart from truth a big difference between memoir and fiction is the liability that is created by each.
In fiction there is virtually no case for slander, libel, fraud, copyright being served upon an author. It is fiction after all. It is made up and proving otherwise is difficult. Memoir however by its very premise leaves the author liable to a multitude of court cases that they are potentially at risk of. Then do we need to look at other aspects of memoir? After all this is supposed to be a true story that has already happened.
If it has already happened then the tense must be correct. First person past tense. There are other facets of the memoir that may render it not totally true and by the use of these are we memoirists actually writing fiction, or a new genre altogether? These I will leave for another post.
Thanks must go to Ann for writing some thought provoking posts which gave me a sleepless night, an epiphany and a frenzied day writing a conference paper which I have been struggling to start. Thanks also to Lisa and Charli both for running bite size memoir and 99 word flash fiction which led me to the conversations.
Thought-provoking post! And over time, other emotions like nostalgia or repressed anger can color earlier memories. I take the easy approach and fictionalize memories that I want to explore or better understand. Like Like.
Emotion is a big item in memoir but also in fiction. It is the emotional link to a character whether real as in memoir or fictional that gets us in. I certainly think that writing a fictional character with emotions that you wish to explore allows you to remove yourself from the scene thus enabling you to revisit it earlier than if you were to write it as a memoir. I once read a memoir which was written in both third person and first person where she became herself at points where she was comfortable but kept herself at arms length at points which she still had difficulty dealing with.
An interesting exercise is to write the same story in first, second and third person and also with each to write as adult you, child you and stranger looking in. With each you get a totally different effect although the story is the same.
Interesting what you point out about the potential liability in memoir vs. Interesting reflections. It gives me the emotional and chronological distance not to write about myself. However, recently one of my close friends who has read my novel says he can recognise me there.
I was surprised first and distressed later. But can we ever get away from ourselves completely as writers? Of course the good thing is that only those who know us very well could tell, anyway…. In an interview Elizabeth Gilbert did she said that her memoirs were a highly polished, edited version of herself. She did not think that she gave too much of herself away in them but she said that if you wanted to know about her and her friends read her fiction novel.
She said she felt that she could let her guard down as she was writing fiction but that she was in more evidence as herself in it than either of her memoirs. I agree. I also love reading letters by authors, they give plenty of clues. Interesting comment, Luccia. Of course, your friend could be wrong, or she could be seeing a part of you that you yourself are less familiar with. You knew that I would read this with great interest Irene, as this is something we have discussed before.
I wonder why it is that I really enjoy doing flash fiction, so far from 50 words up to , yet the thought of writing a fictional novel paralyses me? As you say, is it them not a memoir at all? I am facing this dilemma in my memoir.
0コメント