WRITING & PUBLISHING
To Fictionalize, Or Not to Fictionalize?
Many, if not most, memoir writers at some point wonder whether they should write their first-person story instead as a novel, perhaps in third-person. These options represent two layers of separation from the foundational experience, so let’s take them one at a time.
1. Should you write your story as a memoir, or as a novel?
There’s no universal rule here, but first and foremost, it depends on your purpose in writing the story. If your goal is to tell your personal story in your own unique voice so that others will understand what you’ve lived through, what shaped you, why your individual view of the world is a little different from everyone else’s [what makes you unique] and, at the same time, how it relates to everyone else’s [what makes you human], then you probably need to stick to memoir.
Remember, though, that “memoir” label functions as a vow to readers that your story is authentic, accurate to the best of your recollection, and that you believe what you’ve written. Even if you’ve reimagined or guessed at the incidental details, what you’re aiming for in a memoir is the underlying truth of your experience.
