Do I Have to Tell the Truth in a Memoir?
Depends what you mean by truth.
Yes for the major events in your life. Really, isn’t this the time to tell your eldest that he really wasn’t born three months premature? If you don’t tell the truth about the big things, why bother calling it a memoir?
No for the small stuff. You cannot possibly remember every detail of your life so you may have to include what was likely or expected to make the narrative flow.
Yes for the emotional truth. I will have another post on this as it is an ability all writers need to develop but I want to focus on how it applies to memoirs.
An example of emotional truth in memoirs
Say you want to record how you recovered and thrived after your divorce. But you need to deal with the betrayal which prompted it.
One way you could do this is:
Larry seemed anxious that evening but things had gotten to the point that I didn’t care enough to ask. He came into the living room after dinner.
He just stood there. He cleared his throat. I looked up.
“…you know that things aren’t working out between us.”
“And whose fault is that?”
He waved a hand and took a deep breath. “I don’t want to fight any more. I want a divorce.”
“What!”
He didn’t look up. “I’ve found someone else.”
“What! You bastard! Who is it? I bet it’s that Rachel. She’s been all over you since she and Amir moved here.”
“No, not Rachel. Amir.”
So, this is fine as far as it goes. And although there is the emotional honesty of simply writing down the event, you also need to include the shock, tears, anger, and disbelief you felt and continued to feel for the months following. How did it affect you? Did it make you question what was real or who you were? Did you wonder whether you were a true woman if you married a gay man?
Public versus private face
I know that this is tough to do. And that it asks you to go deeper than you perhaps had originally anticipated.
But people already know your public face—the one you turn to the world. Everything is fine. Yes, my daughter is great. No, I’m okay financially. Never worry about getting old. Don’t wonder how to cope without a spouse.
Your public face, while safe and comfortable, is less compelling than letting the reader see the true you. The private face of the human being with her doubts, fears and triumphs.
Write from your private space. At least for the first draft. Once you have a complete manuscript, then decide whether or what you want to alter. The range can be from publication to nobody ever seeing it and all stops in-between.
The truth of remembrance
While I’m here, so to speak, just a word about how you handle the early days of your life. Obviously, you know what is coming in later years but beginnings larded with Little did I know, As I found out later, He was all charm then, can get tiresome and more importantly, doesn’t present those days as you truly experienced them, untainted with the knowledge of future events and without regret and revenge. Let the reader take the journey with you rather than throwing out constant bits of foreshadowing of the traumas to come.