“Does ‘nonfiction’ mean ‘no fiction’?” This question is one I was asking before this creative nonfiction course even started. Before reading chapter twelve of Tell it Slant by Brenda Miller and Suzanne Paola, I could not comprehend the concept of telling a narrative without creating any of the details I could not remember, especially when using an “I” voice.
In the past, when writing any narrative that was loosely based on my life, I tried not to use the first person because I wanted to keep my distance from the reader, protecting my sense of anonymity. Now, as I reflect on the reading for last week, I understand that allowing myself to connect with my readers is an important part of creative nonfiction writing. In using the first person, I create an atmosphere of truth in the narrative, making it easier for a reader to connect with the narrative, which is one of the main reasons that we as humans read and write: to establish and experience a connection with others.
While
the truth is an essential element in creative nonfiction, I can also understand
how small details that do not seem to matter too much in the grand scheme of
the narrative can be derived from the imagination. In all actuality, when I
have written stories based on my life in the past, I purposefully changed some
of the small details. At that moment, I did not feel as if I had changed the
truth in any way because the story was still very true.
The
lines get blurred when we are forced to pull narratives from our memories, but
we can not remember all the details. Then our imaginations are forced to flesh
out the rest of the story. In doing this, the line between truth and lies,
fiction and nonfiction gets distorted. The bigger picture, or the emotional
truth, is what matters most in writing nonfiction narratives. Without it, the
whole thing is pointless.
Telling
the truth and telling the facts are not the same thing. Telling the truth is
based on one’s own experiences. Telling the facts are statements that have been
proven true. To tell the whole narrative in a cohesive manner, sometimes the
facts need to be taken out. The importance of keeping the narrative flowing
overrides keeping all the facts of what happened in real life inside the text.
As
writers, we must determine our own guidelines for producing narratives that are
technically based on true events. As I mentioned before, I used to put an
excessive amount of distance between myself and my readers because I did not
want them to realize how accurate the narrative was to my life. While this was
a good decision, there was a level of intimacy that was lost. The work should
not be too unrelatable to the reader, but it should also not scare them with
the intensity of emotional content. We must remember as writers that even
though often we write for ourselves, discovering our sense of self can not be
the only reason for writing.
I really resonate with what you said in this post. I also struggle with writing in the first person for similar reasons. I have always felt like it made my writing seem more clean and authoritative to write in the third person. While it may have accomplished that, it definitely sacrificed a level of intimacy with the reader, like you said.
ReplyDeleteI think what you wrote about emotional truth being more important to the narrative than literal fact is very insightful. One of the many things that I love about autobiographies is the feeling of relating to the experiences of another person in new ways. This is much more easily accomplished if a narrative flows cleanly, with the right amount of detail. Leaving too much out because the author can't remember specific facts leaves holes; Adding too much just confuses and overwhelms a reader.
I really enjoyed your post!