Do You Lie or Do You Fictionalize When Writing Memoir?
HE HAD TO LIE to make his father human. Now he tells us. And it’s wow heard ‘round the world, since the writer who is speaking those words is the great Pat Conroy. It’s an issue you’ve faced, as well, haven’t you? Do you lie or do you fictionalize when writing memoir?
Or do you do what Pat Conroy has done for his career, and begin with fictionalizing your hated father – thereby creating the monumental novel, The Great Santini, — fictionalize your almost unbelievably dysfunctional family – thereby creating the astonishing novel, The Prince of Tides – and then, when your father dies, write a breathtaking memoir, as he has now done, in The Death of Santini?
You could do worse than follow his model. But first, read this interview in the Miami Herald with Pat Conroy, and hear what he has to say on these topics.
After that, go read the Writing Lessons post with the author, David Harris-Gershon, about what he fictionalized in parts of his memoir.
And write on.
I fail to understand why fictionalizing has a place in memoir. The distinction between memoir and fiction is quite simple: If it’s the truth, it’s memoir; if it’s not, it’s fiction. Most fiction, as you point out, is “based on a true story.” It’s still fiction. If you must lie in memoir, then you have to let the reader know, like Lauren Slater does in her aptly named memoir “Lying.”
I just completed my sixth novel. To me, it’s all memoir… until it isn’t. Even when it’s fantasy. This time, the draft was completed using all the correct names and places, then one by one, they were changed. A fictional plot also evolved from the reality of my experiences in the setting, which twisted the memory up with the fictional story. Without the honesty of remembered emotion and confusion, a reader wouldn’t find it anything they could relate to, so when I toss out the names and places and make a few substitutions, am I then lying? No, I’m just writing honest fiction.