Writing Memoir? Check Your Facts
WRITING WHAT YOU KNOW does not mean you don’t check your facts. Fact-checking in memoir is essential. Accuracy counts. Memoir demands fact-checking since memory, by its very definition, is subjective.
What to do? Have reference books nearby at all times, including:
- A good modern dictionary
- Roget’s Thesaurus. We will not even discuss using the one on your computer, except to say that it’s forbidden.
- Bartlett’s Quotations
- A rhyming dictionary
- The Bible
- A book of days, referencing famous things that happened on various dates
- The Complete Shakespeare
- Several standard texts of language usage, such as The Elements of Style by Strunk and White, and The Elements of Grammar by Margaret Shertzer, and The New York Times Manual of Style and Usage
- A word and phrase origins book
- A dictionary of symbolism
- One up-to-date, and one hopelessly out-of-date, atlas (country names change)
- Any other old damn thing you want. A full 24-volume standard encyclopedia is nearby for me, as are horticultural encyclopedias; a complete set of field guides to bugs, birds, plants, and mammals; several books on how things work and how they were invented and the like; as well as my copy of The Complete Poems of Emily Dickinson and The War of Art, by Steven Pressfield, either of which I open at random every time I think about getting up from my office chair before the piece is done.
If you’re working in a library, you’re all set. They have all of these. If you’re at home, buy them used at any reputable online used book dealer, like alibris, or ABEbooks. Without them, you will make things up or get stuck, and there is never any reason to get stuck. Say this to yourself over and over, if needed: Fact-checking in memoir is essential. Use it as your mantra. And get to work.
Bravo! I’ve been waiting for the proper venue to spout off on this subject! I’m reading a memoir right now and although it’s a best seller and a captivating read, on the VERY FIRST PAGE, the author got her facts wrong by stating that the cherry blossoms, the gayfeather and asters were all blooming simultaneously. Wrong. Granted, it probably would have slipped right past most people but because I am an avid gardener, I caught it. It wouldn’t have been that difficult to Google these plants to see when they bloom. You’d think an editor would have caught it… Yep. We need to do our homework. Great post.
Oh, I hate that. Yes, we need to do our homework. And why not? What’s the upside to being wrong?
Thanks, Grace. Glad to read you here again. Please come back soon for more.
OK – You’ve stumped me on the ‘no online Thesaurus.’ I have Roget’s and Rodale’s “The Synonym Finder” used to use them a LOT before I found the online thesaurus. There have been times when it didn’t include the meaning of the word I was looking for. (Swish vs swish, for example.)
So it’s not perfect. Do you have other specifics to help me understand your statement?
Love your blog.
…c…
Hi, Carol:
Thanks for stopping in. What the online thesaurus does not allow for is the wondrous journey of finding the exact word. It merely allows for finding another word, which is not enough. The right word, exact word, the perfect word is the word that shades and shapes your piece, and nudges your reader to see the world the way you do. For that, you need some etymology, so that the root of the word is known to you. You need the bounty of a good thesaurus, not the quick fix of other sample words. For that, I trust my Roget’s.