Inventing the Truth

What is that old saying, 'those who can't - teach.'  I can relate to that - to a degree at least.  It is easier for me to teach concepts to other people than apply them to my own personal writing.   But every writing session that I teach, I find nuggets to apply to my own work too. 

Currently I have 13 casual writers who meet with me twice a month at the San Leandro Senior Center.  I've been with a handful of them for two years - and every last one of them has improved in their writing skills.  More recently I started a group out at the Pleasanton Senior Center, where I have 14 enrolled.  It is very new and some of them appear very accomplished and I must admit are a bit intimidating.  However, I am more excited than ever to facilitate another group of people who have the desire to write. 

In most cases these are memoir type of stories and I find it such a privilege to sit among them and read and listen to them read about episodes from their lives.   I've spent the better part of today taking notes from authors of Memoir-Writing books, creating a lesson around the concepts presented.  "Inventing the Truth" which may sound like an oxymoron, explains that the details of life are often very boring and so as a writer one has to preserve the truth and write creatively to create the story.  It is also sometimes called Creative Non-Fiction, the writer may not have been present to have overheard a conversation that took place, but in order to truthfully convey the story, he or she has to recreate it or invent the truth.  But most importantly, a memoir writer has to write with love.

William Zinsser, author, as well as editor of Inventing the Truth: The Art and Craft of Memoir explains that  Pete Hamill’s A Drinking Life, Mary Karr’s The Liars’ Club, Tobias Wolff’s This Boy’s Life and Frank McCourt’s Angela’s Ashes,  all look back at troubled childhoods - with compassion.  They were all written with love.  There’s no self-pity, no whining, no hunger for revenge; the authors are as honest about their own young selves as they are about the sins of their elders.  Readers will connect with your memoir if it is about the journey and humanity.  What they won’t connect with is whining.  Dispose of that anger and rage somewhere else.  Get your intention clear before you start and then tell your story with integrity.

In 1883, Daniel W Whittle wrote the words to a song based on Ezekiel 34:26:  There shall be showers of blessings.  In 1897,  Johnson Oatman, Jr. wrote the lyrics based on Proverbs 10:6: Blessings crown the head of the righteous, to a hymn known as Count Your Blessings.   I grew up with these hymns being sung quite often, as I recall.  It took years for their meaning to fully sink in and for me to understand why they were such cherished hymns.   Regardless of what is going on in our daily lives, God is raining down blessings on us.  Count your many blessings, name the one by one and it will surprise you what the Lord has done.

Inventing the truth isn't about wearing rose colored glasses  - it is putting everything into perspective and telling the truth about your life without leaving out the many blessings you've received.  

It truly is a blessing to be sitting in my chair these days!!