The Lure of Fiction

My agent would like me to write a memoir. Lately, I’ve been considering it—how I would go about it, what I would start with, which narrative elements I would emphasize, what theme(s) I would use to guide me into and out of the story. It can be exciting to think about the materials of my life from outside as the materials from which to build a narrative.

Soon, however, I have a fascinating character approach me seductively or an unusual situation or background catches my interest, and I’m adding notes to the long, long list of the stories and novels I want to write. As I read it over, I realize I’m unlikely to ever live long enough to write all of these, and I find my interest in the memoir withering.

Fiction wins out again. Because it is a superb thrill to successfully bring to life a character who’s never existed before. Because I want to explore certain backgrounds and themes. Because I love to inhabit a world that lives only in my imagination until I magically make it real on the page. Because life is short and the stories I want to tell are neverending.

I understand that good memoirs are in great demand right now. I understand that, if I wrote a memoir, it would receive more serious critical attention than a mystery or fantasy or historical novel or any mashup of those three genres would. I understand that I can probably command more money for a memoir, sell more of them, and make more money in royalties. These are all good reasons for writing one.

Still, the ideas for people and places and situations well up, and I add them to that lengthy list. I realize that, if I want to try to write even the majority of these ideas for books, I’d better begin now and work like a stevedore. So I set aside the memoir and look at my list and see two ideas/characters/situations that could be combined, and enthusiasm and excitement sweep over me.

What is this lure of fiction? Do you also find yourself seduced by your own desire to create people and a world for them to live in?

Tell Your Story

Recently, my youngest niece asked me, “What was life like when you were young?” Despite feeling ancient and that I should be on display in a museum after hearing her question, I realized that my life at her age really was different. One difference is that I didn’t have easy access to technology like she does. She can find information at the click of a mouse or by using her cell phone whereas I had to thumb through books and talk to people. Also, I feel that my generation had more freedom and perhaps felt safer than kids today. For instance, I didn’t need to go through a metal detector to check for hidden weapons before entering school. If I came down with a headache while at school, I could take an aspirin whereas now some kids are required to have the school nurse dispense over the counter medicine.

It occurred to me that I should somehow record information about my life for my niece but I wasn’t sure the best way to do this. After researching, I learned that there are organizations that have created ways for people to record and share their stories.

 

Thanks to the People’s Library project at the Richmond Public Library in Virginia http://www.nomovement.com/People-s-LIbrary, people are writing about their lives to pass along to others. A thousand blank books are being created from discarded books for participants to fill in their history. They can take a class from the library on how to write memoirs. Then they inscribe their life stories on the pages by hand. Completed books are included in the library’s permanent collection and placed on shelves next to bestsellers and classics for residences to check out and read.

 

Another creative project I read about in Readers Digest is StoryCorps. It began as a small oral history project at Grand Central Terminal in New York City then spread throughout the United States. Almost 100,000 people have participated over the past ten years telling their stories in recording booths. Sometimes family members interview each other and touching stories have emerged. One man talked about how he left the Navy in his mid-twenties to stay near his newborn daughter. When his daughter was about ten months old he began raising her as a single parent. He worked as a janitor at night and sometimes had to hide her in the closet at his job. He even took her to college classes and several of his basketball teammates occasionally babysat. When he graduated from college he carried his daughter with him as he received his diploma. His classmates gave him a standing ovation!

 

I think sharing our personal stories is a great way for a younger generation to better understand people they care about as well as learn a more personal version of our shared history.

 

Have you recorded your story? How do you think life is different for kids compared to when you were a child?