When it comes to memoir, we want to catch the author in a lie. When we read fiction, we want to catch the author telling the truth.
Sentiment: POSITIVE
I think one can be more honest in fiction than in a memoir.
Writing a novel is easier than writing a memoir; you are not constrained by the truth.
I have always distrusted memoir. I tend to write my memoirs through my fiction. It's easier to get to the truth by not claiming that you are speaking it. Some things can be said in fiction that can never be said in memoir.
A memoir forces me to stop and remember carefully. It is an exercise in truth. In a memoir, I look at myself, my life, and the people I love the most in the mirror of the blank screen. In a memoir, feelings are more important than facts, and to write honestly, I have to confront my demons.
As a writer of fiction, lying is the central thing to all books.
A memoir takes some particular threads, some incidents, some experience from a person's life and gives an account of it.
One of the questions writers bump up against in their work, whether they know it or not, is about lying. Because fiction is a form of deceit, and one's abilities are measured by how convincingly one can persuade readers that these events really happened.
In a memoir, your main contract with the reader is to tell the truth, no matter how bizarre.
I will say, with memoir, you must be honest. You must be truthful.
A memoir is always the most authentic telling of a situation, but a novel gets to different places.