As the popularity of creative nonfiction increases, the genre brings up an interesting debate: is every word supposed to be true? If events are recorded in a memoir, were they supposed to happen just that way? If a writer is investigating a true crime, is it okay for her to make up dialogue between the criminals if she gets really close to what was probably said? Recently, I read the book:
You Can't Make This Stuff Up by Lee Gutkind, who is the editor and founder of
Creative Nonfiction magazine. The book discusses what creative nonfiction is, provides popular examples done well, and instructs writers how to create a nonfiction piece.
Creative nonfiction is a nonfiction story that is told with fiction elements: dialogue, setting details, scenes, characterization (of real people), and so on.That's where the creative part is
supposed to come in--not in the facts but in HOW the facts are revealed.
Part one of Lee's book would be interesting to anyone who loves to read and discuss what they read. The author writes about some of the most infamous cases of writers who claimed to write a true, nonfiction account of their lives; when in all actuality, it was false—sometimes the entire story made up.
The account most people know about is James Frey and his book,
A Million Little Pieces, since Oprah chose it as one of her book club selections. Because of her recommendation, two million copies of his book sold, and Frey became a household name. Then it was discovered that most of his story was completely untrue. He did more than make up some dialogue or create a composite character for simplicity sake--Frey lied.
This is one of the extreme examples that Gutkind discusses in his book during the ethics section; but there are actually more writers (more than I realized!) that fudge the truth just a bit. But still, they claim that they write creative nonfiction. For example, David Sedaris admits that because he writes humor based on his life, that sometimes he must exaggerate or make up dialogue to get a laugh. Some of the funny lines in
Naked? Completely fabricated!
John Berendt made up dialogue and rearranged the story chronology in
Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil! Several people from Frank McCourt's home town claim that he didn't exactly tell the whole truth in
Angela's Ashes, and they state they've found over 100 discrepancies.
 |
| A good example of the genre |
On his blog and in his book, Gutkind writes that he can accept some "exaggerating an event or situation, or compressing time periods, or creating composite characters" and that it "may possibly help a nonfiction writer make his or her point more effectively—although I believe this is only rarely truly necessary."
It’s a crucial decision for writers to make if they are going to tackle the genre: are they going to tell the truth without embellishments?
Personally, I was disappointed when reading this section of Lee's book--so many writers don't stick to the 100 percent truth. But then I thought maybe it's really difficult to do this--I don't write much in this genre, so maybe I don't know. I have written some essays, and I have included dialogue, and I think I have the dialogue right; but it's as I remember it--so who knows for sure?
How do you feel about this issue? How much of a creative nonfiction piece is it okay to "make up"? If you write memoir or creative nonfiction, do you create dialogue or make up characters, etc, to smooth transitions? As a reader, how do you trust the writer?
I started thinking that perhaps books should say on the cover: Based On a True Story--just like many movies do. . .
Margo L. Dill edits, blogs, writes, and teaches for WOW! Women On Writing. To view her upcoming classes in spring and summer (writing for children/teens, writing short fiction, writing a children's/YA novel), please visit the WOW! classroom: http://www.wow-womenonwriting.com/WOWclasses.html
Writers on the Move is always striving to find the most effective book marketing strategies. But just knowing what to do without taking action will keep you running in place.
Business philosopher, motivational speaker, and entrepreneur Jim Rohn put it best:
“Don't let your learning lead to knowledge; let your learning lead to action.” That’s what we at Writers on the Move continually try to do.
Within the past few months, our group has under-gone a number of changes and now we seem to have a very effective marketing group strategy.
Since, we are gaining in visibility and readership through our blog posts and the writing and marketing workshops we offer, we've decided to open our doors to new members.I'll answer a few of the potential membership questions that might come up for those who are interested in joining our 'visibility generating’ writing and marketing group:
1. Is the group membership free?YES IT IS!
2. Do I have to be a published author to join?No, you don't have to be a published author. You can be a writer, or an aspiring author. And, if you're published, it doesn't matter if you're traditionally published or self-published.
3. What are the requirements to being a member? It's pretty simple - you will need to post one article per month to the group blogsite (here). That means you'll need to be a contributing author on the site - which I'll take care of. The articles should be focused on writing, book publishing, or book marketing
And, if you have something to share, you can present a Writers on the Move workshop on writing, publishing, or marketing. Participating in this feature of the group will help build your mailing list, and we offer After Workshop Packages - take a look on the related page on this site.
4. The WIIFM (What's in it for me)? In other words, What are the benefits I'll get out of joining?Well, if you're an author, aspiring author, writer, freelance writer, ghostwriter, or other, you'll be wanting to promote either your books, e-books, articles, podcasts, workshops, teleclasses, services - you get the idea. This group gives you a platform to do just that.
Through article marketing (the posts we share on this site) and monthly workshops, Writers on the Move is gaining in visibility and readership. Joining our group will allow you to join in on the 'visibility' ride.
You have the association of other members who are all talented writers, and who are generous with their knowledge and experience.
5. Can my posts be promotion for my books? While you can add a bio and your books information at the end of your article, our posts are geared toward helping our readers. We want to provide information on writing, book publishing (self-publishing and traditional), and/or book marketing. Our intent is pay-it-forward and help writers on their writing journey.
Also, remember that in your bio, you can link to your site/s, your landing, or selling pages - your posts are a conduit to you and your offerings. Don't underestimate the power of article marketing!
If you have a question I've missed, please leave a comment or email me at karenrcfv [AT] yahoo {DOT} c o m. Please put "WOTM" in the subject box.
If you'd like to join our group, you can go to our Yahoo Group and request to join: http://finance.groups.yahoo.com/group/vbt-writersonthemove/
Or, you can email
If you're here at this site, you're most likely interested in teaching with picture books. You recognize that these models provide excellent examplars for word choice, idea development, story structure, and many other skills and traits.
In fact,
You know the importance of using mentor texts when teaching author's craft to your young writers. But how do you- a busy teacher with only so many hours in a day - find great mentor texts? With so many children's books available and so little time to peruse them all, matching books to writers' workshop minilessons remains a challenge.
That challenge is met in
I Can Write Like That! A Guide to Mentor Texts and Craft Studies for Writers' Workshop, K-6
, an
International Reading Association title by Susan Ehmann and Kellyann Gayer.
The excerpt above appears on the book's back cover, along with this:
In these pages you'll discover engaging fiction and nonfiction children's books and ideas for using them to their maximum potential as teaching tools. And you will find new ways to give your students a priceless gift - exemplary models for their own writing. Realize the reward of having your students listen to a well-written story then identify the author's craft and say, "I can write like that!"
Four years in the making,
I Can Write Like That! serves as an invaluable resource if you're seeking to accomplish the following:
- Build a library of mentor texts;
- Uncover all that you can teach from each book in your growing mentor library, whether it be from an old favorite or a new discovery;
- Find the perfect mentor texts to teach specific craft elements; or
- Locate age-appropriate craft studies that support your writing curriculum and further serve as models as you develop craft studies of your own. (pp. 5, 6)
I was frankly surprised to see that half the book consists of annotated lists of picture books; upon closer inspection, however, I realized that this feature makes sense. So many teachers in workshops have come to me and said, "I have so many of those books in my classroom library, but I never really knew before how to use them for instruction," or, "I want to create a core collection of really great books, but I don't even know where to start."
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Margo L. Dill edits, blogs, writes, and teaches for WOW! Women On Writing. To view her upcoming classes in spring and summer (writing for children/teens, writing short fiction, writing a children's/YA novel), please visit the WOW! classroom: http://www.wow-womenonwriting.com/WOWclasses.html
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7 Comments on I Can Write Like That: Focusing on Mentor Texts, last added: 3/17/2011
Good questions. I think creative nonfiction, since it is based on our memories and perceptions, is always going to be partly fiction. That may be unintentional, but there are good reasons to intentionally alter truths, too. Like the example of exaggerating for humor. I've written creative nonfiction that is as close to the truth as I can get, but I've also written pieces that take several scenes and combine them into one, or take events out of order to make the story smoother. I like this quote from Pam Houston, who writes "fiction" but her stories seem mostly nonfiction: "Everything I write is 82% true."
Interesting discussion! I like how Ben Mezrich handled it in his book The Accidental Billionaires (the book they based the movie The Social Network on). He included an author's note in the beginning that said the book was a dramatic, narrative account based on dozens of interviews and hundreds of sources, and says that he uses literary techniques like re-created dialogue and scenes to move the story along. Because many of the conversations took place in different settings and over time, so he wanted to put them all together. So it's kind of like your movie disclaimer idea, and I liked that he was up front about it because the book is supposed to be nonfiction.
I feel nonfiction should be as true as possible, but I don't have the same expectations for memoir. I don't know why, but I guess it's because a good memoir is intimate. You get to see through a person's eyes and live through her flesh.
So I don't mind David Sedaris embellishing a bit in his stories--it's like a friend telling you what happened over dinner. There are those friends who tell a great story! And you often wonder if it's all completely true. But I think a book like The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks should be as accurate as possible because the author is uncovering an important scientific story about the start of the human cell cloning industry some sixty years ago, and involves an entire family over decades.
Those are just my feelings, and I don't know if they make sense or not. It makes you wonder if the person who invented the saying "Truth is stranger than fiction" wrote creative nonfiction!
Yes, I'd read before that David Sedaris has been known to "embellish" his work for humor's sake. And as one who frequently writes about the humorous goings on in my life, I think that's okay--as long as the gist of the event remains true. If you're making up an entire event, well, then, that's fiction and should be called such.
As for John Berendt, I was not okay with the way he manipulated the time line in his book. If he'd said, "based on true events", I wouldn't have minded so much. But he placed himself in the story AFTER certain events had transpired and he won awards as a non-fiction book.
I'm okay with a writer playing around with dialogue lines, but messing *with* events crosses the line.
I really enjoyed the questions you pose here, Margo. It is interesting that James Frey also claimed that he marketed his book originally as fiction and the publisher suggested they go memoir. I'm not sure if that's any truer than his memoir :)
Thanks for the insight here as I struggle with how (and if) to tell my life story.
Thanks for the comments, everyone. I do understand how hard it is to remember things factually--as in memoir or humor stories--we do the best we can according to our memory and as long as we aren't creating things like going to jail (I mean you just forgot you didn't go to jail?), I can see how the spirit of truth is there. And I agree books like Rebecca Skloot's should be as close to truth as humanly possible. I think my problem is 1. I'm naive 2. When I taught elementary school, we used to teach kids test taking skills. We told them that when answering true and false statements, if ANY PART of a statement was false, the ENTIRE STATEMENT was false. So. . .I guess that's where I am with all of this. I do think a disclaimer helps, somewhat.
Good discussion. I am reading one of Gutkind's other books right now, and exploring Creative nonfiction writing myself. I like what everyone else said. As close to true as is possible. When I read a supposed "creative" nonfiction book, I assume some dialogue or details are embellished, because unless you recorded those conversations, how could you possibly remember every word that was spoken!? I think if you get the gist of the scene correct, the feeling, and perhaps ask those people who are portrayed in the scene if you got it correct, then you're just about as close as you can get. Thanks for the post!
Humor writers get a certain amount of wiggle room, but if anyone else fudges dialogue or the timeline than it is fiction based on actual events. I don't care of you're John Berendt or Ben Mezrich. Maybe its because I came to this world via academia (history and archaeology/anthropology) but you do not fudge the date.