[stylist] Creative nonfiction is not made-up material

Mon Mar 5 16:52:20 UTC 2012

Lynda,
This is a wonderful metaphor.
I am so stimulated by two excellent writers with differing points of view.
I am trying to think of the name of the man who wrote a best-selling memoir
that was selected by Oprah Winfrey as her book selection. When she found it
was based on lies, she shamed him publicly. As far as I know, he is still
writing and making money at it. I do not know if there were legal
ramifications to his writing, only that Oprah was furious.
Jackie

-----Original Message-----
From: stylist-bounces at nfbnet.org [mailto:stylist-bounces at nfbnet.org] On
Behalf Of Lynda Lambert
Sent: Monday, March 05, 2012 9:34 AM
To: Writer's Division Mailing List
Subject: Re: [stylist] Creative nonfiction is not made-up material

I have to say I am fascinated by the strong, and very strange, reaction that

a little three diget word has  aroused. Who knew that to meniton a "lie" 
would bring on such passion. It makes me smile to think of it!   I am 
accustomed to dealing with discussions and distractions in the college and 
university classrooms where I have taught for many years. It goes with the 
territory. But, it is fun when even I am surprised.

Artists and writers lie and steal. I plead guilty to both and I certainly 
hope that the hundreds of students in my classrooms over the years learned 
to do it, too. Professors and our ideas have a way or reproducing and 
multiplying.

We take something from one place, and we take it to a different place. We 
are like a turck driver - we pick up a load, travel with it, and deliver it 
to another place. It is never the same when it reaches the final 
destination. A transition occurs in transit.

Our load is "ideas" and "inspiration" and "a hunch" or an "obsession."

It is  from this  stuff that our creative work emerges.
And, sometimes even we are hoodwinked by our own sacred cows.

Lynda (spelled  L  Y  N  D  A  )

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Eve Sanchez" <3rdeyeonly at gmail.com>
To: "Writer's Division Mailing List" <stylist at nfbnet.org>
Sent: Monday, March 05, 2012 1:24 AM
Subject: Re: [stylist] Creative nonfiction is not made-up material

> As Dr. Gregory House says Everybody lies." A politician does not want to 
> be
> called a lier, but if the shoe fits. Much of creative nonfiction is not
> about someone's personal experiences, but rather something that happened 
> in
> past history. It, in most cases, is impossible to know what those long 
> dead
> characters said, or ate, or wore on a certain day. Yet if these things 
> were
> not presumed to the best of the authors ability through research of what 
> is
> known about time period and/or incident concerned, the books would be
> awfully boring. I for one am thankful for the creativeness of the authors
> of creative nonfiction to weave such lies.  A word that is not so harsh as
> lye,but just as cleansing. Diolch, Eve
>
> On Sun, Mar 4, 2012 at 12:37 PM, Bridgit Pollpeter
> <bpollpeter at hotmail.com>wrote:
>
>> Linda,
>>
>> We may have to agree to disagree . I have a degree in creative writing,
>> my emphasis in creative nonfiction, IE, the personal essay and memoir
>> writing. I may have very little knowledge and experience on most
>> subjects, but this is one area I'm well-versed in.
>>
>> Memoir writing does not contain "lies." When writing any creative
>> nonfiction piece, one may use dialogue, which is yes, remembered to ones
>> best ability, but it's not a "lie." When in conversation with a friend,
>> you may talk about a conversation with another person. You won't be able
>> to relay that conversation verbatim, but you summarize. It's still the
>> truth. Look at it like this: when you summarize a book, you are not
>> reliving it moment by moment or line by line, but you are still
>> summarizing the truth. If I use dialogue in a piece of CNF, it will most
>> likely not be verbatim, but it' ssummarized, still true though.
>>
>> Creative nonfiction also can use conjecture, but it is clear that a
>> writer is using conjecture. If I write what I believe your thoughts are
>> and do not state it's just my opinion, then I'm making something up with
>> the intention of it being understood it's in deed real. However, if I
>> state I'm conjecturing with language, then it's clear I'm only guessing.
>> Again, this is not a "lie," but me adding layers to a piece with
>> conjecture; plucking up puzzle pieces.
>>
>> Using descriptive language only allows CNF writers to create a scene, to
>> provide sensory details. Again, you do this to the best of your memory,
>> but it's in no way a lie or fictitious. As long as the thoughts,
>> feelings and events are real, there's nothing fictitious about CNF even
>> if details such as location, setting and dialogue are written to the
>> writers best memory of them but not exact. If a painter paints a forest
>> they once visited but don't paint some trees exactly where they stand in
>> real-life, does this render the painting completely made-up and imagined
>> in the mind of the artist? I'd say no; and the same goes for CNF
>> writers.
>>
>> You can also look at CNF this way: If you and I go to the same event at
>> the same time, we will most likely take away different memories. Does
>> this mean, just because I had a slightly different experience of the
>> event than you, or vice versus, that one of us is lying about our
>> experience? Of course not. In creative nonfiction, it's about the
>> experience, and how that experience can be relatable to others and
>> transcend into a universal.
>>
>> So, I respectfully say that it's wrong to categorize CNF as
>> fictionalized accounts of real-life, or to say that "lies" are told in
>> CNF. The use of dialogue, descriptive language, metaphor and imagery,
>> conjecture, different POV's, etc., this does not render a piece of CNF
>> as fiction, and a CNF writer is not incorporating lies into their story.
>> We are using creative, literary techniques and devices to not only tell
>> about our real-life events, but to find a morsel of universal
>> understanding; to use our life and experiences creating a metaphor that
>> many can relate to, or creating a finely honed image others can take
>> something from.
>>
>> Feelings and thoughts are very abstract things. To create this
>> abstraction with words often takes very creative means; it doesn't turn
>> the material into fiction. Annie Dillard's Eclipse is one of the most
>> famous personal essays studied in writing and literature programs. She
>> takes a very real moment from a specific time in her life but delves
>> into a spiritual plane. Because she uses her inner thoughts a lot, it
>> doesn't mean she's making things up; this would be saying thoughts and
>> feelings are not real.
>>
>> Or when I tell you about a specific moment from my childhood, am I lying
>> about it if I don't remember exactly what happened, or quote verbatim
>> what people said? No. So why would it be considered made-up if I write
>> it?
>>
>> Sorry, but like I said, I've studied CNF for years now, and sat at the
>> feet of some great CNF writers, and trust me, none of us like to be told
>> we are lying or making material up. Using creative means does not mean
>> we are not also providing facts, and there is a form of CNF called
>> literary journalism. Joan Didion has a lot of great literary journalism.
>> LJ also relies on creative techniques to "report facts."
>>
>> Sincerely,
>> Bridgit Kuenning-Pollpeter
>> Read my blog at:
>> http://blogs.livewellnebraska.com/author/bpollpeter/
>>
>> "History is not what happened; history is what was written down."
>> The Expected One- Kathleen McGowan
>>
>> Message: 18
>> Date: Sat, 3 Mar 2012 18:07:29 -0500
>> From: "Lynda Lambert" <llambert at zoominternet.net>
>> To: "Writer's Division Mailing List" <stylist at nfbnet.org>
>> Subject: Re: [stylist] Memoirs and autobiographies
>> Message-ID: <1DC0442900B54042B78AAF4F501F3A25 at Lambert>
>> Content-Type: text/plain; format=flowed; charset="iso-8859-1";
>>        reply-type=original
>>
>> I guess it sounds immoral to say that it is a lie? Not at all. Lies are
>> delightful, and that is why we write; and why we love literature.
>>
>> The memoir is greatly enhanced accounts of a  truth  - it is a glorius
>> lie
>> that we tell when writing our story. Our glorious lie is the story we
>> have
>> woven together from the fragments of our memory, imagination, and our
>> research into details that we do not remember at all. The true facts
>> mingle
>> with these other aspects to for the woven tapestry of the story we are
>> telling.
>> Otherwise, we would just be a newspaper writer and give the "facts,
>> m'aam,
>> just the facts."
>>
>> Lynda
>>
>>
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