Alexandra Bogdanovic's Blog: That's life... - Posts Tagged "william-shakespeare"

For this week's illustration, I created a "word cloud" based on one of my all-time favorite quotations. It is, as Virginia Woolf so eloquently said, "If you do not tell the truth about yourself, you cannot tell it about other people."
Given recent news about authors who allegedly fabricated material in well-known books chronicling personal experiences, I couldn't think of a better quotation or subject for discussion.
In order to properly frame said discussion however, I must first review the differences between memoir, autobiography and fact-based novels.
While memoir and autobiography are both non-fiction, there is a significant difference between the genres. Generally speaking, a memoir chronicles a certain period or aspect of the author's life. An autobiography is devoted to the author's entire life.
On the other hand, fact-based novels, or novels "based on true experiences" are exactly that. Consequently, authors of such novels can take certain liberties with character and plot development.
Those of us who have written memoirs and autobiographies don't have the same leeway. For memoirists, it is especially important to remain faithful to the truth no matter what. We must be brutally honest not only with our readers, but with ourselves. Trust me, I speak from experience.
In my memoir, I was incredibly honest not only about my experience with my ex, but about myself. Because I chose to be truthful about my life, some critics have said my memoir lacks conflict, a "story arc" and "character development." Others have said I included too much mundane detail.
Well, let's be honest. For most of us, life is boring and mundane. Daily drudgery is just that. Frankly there was nothing extraordinary about my life whatsoever until my former-husband's revelation turned it upside down. And although I endured a tremendous betrayal at his hands, there wasn't a lot of conflict between us even after he shared his secret.
I suppose some readers would expect me to invent these details to satisfy their expectations. But the bottom line is that an award-winning journalist, I never manipulated the facts to sensationalize an issue and as an author I refused to manipulate the facts of my own life just to make my book more "marketable" or "entertaining." After all, I wrote a memoir, not a novel based on true experiences.
Neither I nor my ex-husband, nor anyone else in my memoir are "characters" that had to be developed. I made a conscious decision not to cheapen my life experience by writing "true fiction" that could be bent and twisted to appeal to the masses.
Apparently a North Korean prison camp survivor who recently confessed to lying about some details in a best-selling book about his life wasn't inclined to hold himself to the same standards.
Neither, apparently, was a teenager who recently admitted that the events in his memoir, The Boy Who Came Back From Heaven, never occurred. In published reports, the teen, who co-wrote the book with his father, said he fabricated the story in order to get attention.
In one case, the publisher announced that it will stop selling the book. In the other, the North Korean prison camp survivor said he is now considering ending his human rights campaign. In any case I hope their stories serve as stark reminders that every action has consequences.
As for me, I have no regrets and I make no apologies. As the great William Shakespeare put it, "To thine own self be true, and it must follow, as the night the day, thou canst not then be false to any man."
Until next time, "That's life..."