Inspiration, Thanksgiving, Change

navigating (around) the truth, in memoir or fiction

In this post-Thanksgiving week, pause to acknowledge your gratitude for something from your life that has inspired your work. Maybe it’s something good; somewhat more likely, it’s a conflict, a problem, a person you have a complex relationship to. Then do reality a solid and write about it in a way that alters something substantial, putting distance between this source of inspiration and the version you’ve written.

Make that brother a banker, not a painter. Set the scene of the trauma in the woods, not at the beach. If you’re working in nonfiction and don’t want to make things untrue, consider a mashup of two true things, combining elements of both to give rise to an authentic moment that is nonetheless a hybrid — and very much your own. Why do this? Leaning on memory gives us access to great authenticity, but smudging it a bit will free you up from your own preconceived understandings, let you see things differently, and, by giving you room to choose what you’re changing, this exercise may free you from the constraints of your memory, putting you in fuller control of your narrative universe, whether it’s fictional or nonfiction.