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After years of having numerous friends, acquaintances and other people suggest I write a book(s) at least about some of my specific life experiences, their advice is taking hold in me.
So recently I've started reading books about writing non-fiction books & articles, and very recently to just put some rough thoughts down onto paper.
Am experiencing some indecisiveness about how personal & specific I want to be about some things and people, in consideration of actually publishing it for anyone to read. In deference to my own & others privacy as well as simple readability.
Anyone here have experience writing & publishing autobiographical books or articles? I would love to learn of different peoples' experiences & choices in choosing what to print & what to keep private, as well as how you crafted a truthful, biographical experience into a creative & pleasureably readable story?
Also, if anyone knows of friendly, unpretentious writers groups, gatherings or informal get-togethers in the San Francisco east bay area, or surrounding areas, of people who share writing as an interest and or profession, where a newbie writer like myself would be welcome I would love to know about them.?
So recently I've started reading books about writing non-fiction books & articles, and very recently to just put some rough thoughts down onto paper.
Am experiencing some indecisiveness about how personal & specific I want to be about some things and people, in consideration of actually publishing it for anyone to read. In deference to my own & others privacy as well as simple readability.
Anyone here have experience writing & publishing autobiographical books or articles? I would love to learn of different peoples' experiences & choices in choosing what to print & what to keep private, as well as how you crafted a truthful, biographical experience into a creative & pleasureably readable story?
Also, if anyone knows of friendly, unpretentious writers groups, gatherings or informal get-togethers in the San Francisco east bay area, or surrounding areas, of people who share writing as an interest and or profession, where a newbie writer like myself would be welcome I would love to know about them.?
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I am working on a short right now that is base on my life. The only suggestion I have gotten for it was "Change my name" form a number of people who did illegal things in the story (and in real life).
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“Biography in these communicative days has become so voluminous that it might seem calculated rather for the ninefold vitality of another domestic animal than for the less lavish allotment of man.” – James Russell Lowell (Introduction to ‘The Complete Angler” by Izaak Walton).
Truth told I’m in agreement with Lowell and remembering he wrote this in that in the late 19th century, could things have changed?
If you do write a bio-ish bit of life, one thing you might remember Truman Capote and his experience with ‘Answered Prayers’. Write only what you can live with is the wisest approach, ‘cause it ain’t over yet.
I’ve only once or twice done such writing, and then in only rather oblique fashion of obscure occurrences. Then too, great writers advise “Write what you know” so what the heck, go for it. Kerouac did it and in a manner becoming great lit. -
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Thanks.
Good advice.
The name changes are something that would probably be good to do for some people for sure. Seems to be coming down to whether using all pen-names & changed names of others in the book and clarifying this at the beginning of the book. Or using my name but selectively changing other peoples names with discretion.
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I'd say it depends on (a) the individual piece and (b) the individual market.
Last year a creative nonfiction essay of mine was published in Reed #60 ( www.reedmag.org/ ). To preserve people's privacy (mainly because I was concerned about one person's safety), I changed the names of those involved. I originally submitted the piece using a pseudonym, but was urged to (and did) publish under my own name. I was asked not to use a pseudonym for memoir material in part because of the J.T. Leroy/Laura Albert case ( www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi ).
I also had creative nonfiction published under my own name in Diarist's Journal, back in the 80s.
Jane Taylor McDonnell's guide to memoir writing, Living to Tell the Tale, shows how one can write memoir without knowing all the details, or by presenting people as composite characters. She includes an excellent quote from Vivian Gornick:
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... it is true that the concerns of the memoirist are the same as those of the novelist. Memoir writing shares with fiction writing the obligation to lift from the raw material of life a tale that will shape experience, transform an event, deliver wisdom. It differs from fiction writing in the way it approaches the task, the chief difference being that a fictional 'I' can be, and often is, an unreliable narrator; the nonfictional 'I' can never be. In memoir, the reader must be persuaded that the narrator is speaking truth.
Truth in a memoir is achieved not through a recital of actual events; it is achieved when the reader comes to believe that the writer is working hard to engage with the experience at hand. What happened to the memoirist is not what matters; it matters only what the memoirist makes of what happened.
----------excerpt end----------
In his book The Story of San Michele (Dutton, 1929, and subsequent editions), which has been called memoir, autobiographical fiction, and genre-defying, Axel Munthe tells of his medical clinic in very factual ways, yet includes imaginary dialogue such as that between him and a dog named Leo:
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"The moon is a ghost," said Leo.
"A ghost? Who told you that?"
"An ancestor of mine heard it ages ago in the pass of St. Bernard from an old bear who had heard it from Atta Troll, who had heard it from the Great Bear himself who roles over all bears. Why, they are all afraid of the moon up there in the sky. No wonder we dogs are afraid of it and bark at it, when even the brilliant Sirius, the Dog star who rules over all dogs, turns pale when it creeps out of its grave and lifts its sinister face out of the darkness."
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Another passage from the book is decidedly less fanciful:
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The next day I fainted in Strada Piliero. When I regained consciousness I was lying in a cab with a terrified policeman sitting on the seat opposite me. We were on our way to Santa Maddalena, the cholera hospital.
I have described elsewhere how that drive ended, how three weeks later my stay in Naples ended with a glorious sail across the bay in Sorrento's best sailing-boat together with a dozen stranded Capri fishermen, how we lay a whole unforgettable day off the Marina of Capri unable to land on account of the quarantine.
----------excerpt end----------
I occasionally blog old journal entries, so below are links to some samples of my own memoir writing, specifically "encounters." I've performed several of these, some in shortened form, at open mics (my telling of the moose encounter in "The Unexpected Trails" earned me the nickname Moose Lady). If I were to include them in a book, I would tighten them up a bit. I consider these to be my "raw data."
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