Memoir Writing - The Importance of Facts

p>Facts, such as dates, addresses, names, andgrandchildren's children will not. The reader who
relationships are a special feature of lifewriting.has bought the book will be unable to capture the
Lifewriting cannot, without deleting from its value,nuances below the surface of the story without
omit dates and specific identification of locales,these details.
names of individuals and their relationships to oneFacts help the reader to locate parts of the past
another. Memoir writing is factual writing. Ashared with the writer. When you say you were
lifestory without these facts is like a map withoutborn downtown in a tenement--exactly where
route numbers. Whether I know the people in thewas that? Was it on Oak, or Birch, or Walnut St.?
stories or not, I always want to be able to moveBesides helping the reader to interpret your story,
easily in the complicated terrain of relationshipsthis information certainly will make it possible for
and the sequence of events so that I might,someone to go to the actual site where you
through reading, form my own views about thewere born, or empathize because of his or her
character.own experience.
Facts help us to evaluate. That someone startedFacts help the reader to maintain an independence
to play with the symphony orchestra at age 15 isfrom the writer. When these sorts of details are
very different from starting to play at age 20 oromitted, the reader is forced to rely on the writer
at 25. At fifteen, one is a prodigy; at 20, gifted; atto understand what the story might mean. (Most
25, talented. It is impossible for the reader toreaders are not comfortable with this relationship
assess subtleties of character without thisto the writer.) Sometimes, factual writing is also
information.important if readers are to know which parts of a
Facts determine relationships with precision. I wantlifestory is appropriate to apply the lessons of to
to know whether Uncle Ralph was Grandmother'stheir own lives.
youngest brother, or Grandfather's older one. Or,We've all had the experience of meeting someone
even more complicated, was he in fact a cousinin person after having been "told all about them"
who because of a close relationship, was alwaysthrough another's description--only to realize that
called Uncle Ralph. The writer may know thethe description we received reveals more about
answer but it's almost guaranteed that theits author than its subject.
writer's grandchildren will not and certainly theGood luck writing!