But My Sister Remembers It Differently: On Working with Contested Memories

By Dinty W. Moore

It happens time and again—a writer I am working with turns to me and says, “I want to use this memory, but I just shared it with my sister, and she has an entirely different version of events.”

My answer: “Well of course she does!”

Disparities in distant memory—and often even recent memory—are simply inevitable. It is how our minds work. What is important as writers is that we don’t let these apparent contradictions tumble us into uncertainty mode, stall our projec...