HOW TRUE DO we need to be when we write memoir? That question elicits no small amount of howling when it is asked and answered in my class. And it is asked and answered – and howled over – all the time. Though no more. Nope. Not since I got myself a chart, one I’m pinning to my dress to carry with me everywhere.
Oh, how I love the Yagoda Line, a chartable sixty-five percentile, marked with line, below which a memoir must not slip if it wants to stay this side of being considered true. Featured in a piece in the ever-brilliant, always-provocative Nieman Storyboard online, a project of the Nieman Foundation at Harvard, The Line was penned and illustrated by writer, Ben Yagoda (Memoir: A History; Riverhead Trade, 2010, among others), and journalist and cartographer, Dan DeLorenzo, who together argue for what they call “truthy writing.” To help you achieve this standard, they provide a printable, workable, one-page PDF worksheet to rate the honesty of your own work. Oh yeah.
Get out your safety pins ready, writers, and wear this thing all over town. You’ll be glad you did. That way, when someone brings up a particular book, their own work – or your work, for that matter – you can whip out this little number and tally up some truth.
Enjoy.
Charlotte Ashurst McDaniel says
Memoir Project came yesterday – Revising old memoir into – either: “The Envelope, Please!” – “I Was Never Meant To Be A Star” – Hold On To Your Dreams” or “She Wanted to Be On the Cover of Life.” Which would you be most likely to pick up?
Heard about your first from LINK from Gotham Writers Workshop e-newsletter. Then listened to the pod cast with the woman in London. “What keeps your pilot lit?”
LOVE IT! LOVE IT! That’s my story and I’m stickin’ to it!
marion says
Hi, Charlotte.
Welcome to my blog. So glad you heard me on NPR, and that you saw the listing in the lovely Gotham Writers Workshop newsletter.
And most of all, thank you for buying the book. I’m so glad it is helping.
Please stay in touch.