For a long time, I worked in creative non-fiction as an editor and writer. I attended workshops, and wrote a lot before I realized this: I have no real story. You could say everyone has a story, and I suppose it’s true in some ways. However the memoirs that get published are the memoirs of drug and alcohol addiction, abandonment by parents, and behind the scenes in war. They aren’t the stories of ordinary lives with interesting episodes.
So what happens to some writers who want a memoir published? They exaggerate. They invent. They lie. The fact that it happens over and over again (look at this list of fake memoirs) makes me think that editors must be a bit dull that they don’t fact check the basic facts. And I know that editors say that they don’t have time to fact check or that they rely on the agent to check the truthfulness, but I know that when I worked in-house in publishing, I fact checked because otherwise things got embarrassing. Like this: Publisher Cancels Holocaust Memoir. Duh.
December 29th, 2008 at 4:11 pm
Which is why hubby and I keep joking that we need to lose a limb (or a sibling with lots of kids) so we can get onto Extreme Makeover Home Edition.
But then we’d be stuck with a gigantic, inefficient house with high taxes.
December 29th, 2008 at 5:23 pm
And you’d be in foreclosure….
December 29th, 2008 at 7:22 pm
Oh I could so write a memoir except Running With Scissors was pretty much my life. I kept watching it going - did this guy know my family. Seriously.
On a plus note, we removed all the flooring in our house and currently have just subfloor. The county assessor came by and asked my husband what flooring we had and he showed her - her response “well, I’ll just mark none”. So now we live in a house that has no flooring as far as the county is concerned. Nice.
December 29th, 2008 at 7:50 pm
I look forwarding to reading it. The “crazy parents” market is wide open…
December 31st, 2008 at 8:51 am
IMHO, at this point the genre is ripe for an Adventures-of-the-Baron-Munchausen-esque parody that takes all the cliches of the genre and exaggerates them, but keeps the writing very straight and in a memoir tone as to never admit that the obviously fictional stories are fictional.
I would seriously write this book if I had the time.
If you do it and make money, put me through law school.
CC
December 31st, 2008 at 9:14 am
Point of clarification, please: “Crazy Parents” market is that being the spawn of one or being one? Just need to know if its worth starting …
December 31st, 2008 at 9:46 am
That’s really not a bad idea, CC. Of course, you’d still have to sell it as fiction, but you’re right about the potential for satire. Perhaps I should write about that time I lived on the streets as a crackhead after my mother abandonned me and I was waiting to be drafted….
Oh, uuMomma, I fear that you might create a new category if you want to write as the crazy parent…but perhaps one most could relate to!
December 31st, 2008 at 10:17 am
I’d say Ann Lammott and Ayelet Waldman have the “crazy parent” field pretty much to themselves for now. Lots of room for growth.
I would think that you would sell the faux memoir as fiction through your agent, but convince the publisher to market it as a memoir.
CC
December 31st, 2008 at 11:09 am
Now that I think of it, some of the mommy bloggers present a crazy mother front to the world pretty darn effectively….
I met Anne at Squaw and she’s really kind and generous, and possibly the only one of the big deal writers who would introduce herself spontaneously to the participants at the conference.
December 31st, 2008 at 1:14 pm
She’s still on the Chaliceblog’s enemies list.
December 31st, 2008 at 1:18 pm
Too funny. Given your feelings about Dooce, I’m guessing it has to do with the degree of disclosure combined with the parenting choice…. Is this a published list?
January 2nd, 2009 at 4:05 pm
Oh yeah.
CC
January 2nd, 2009 at 8:32 pm
Oh, I see. I mostly agree.
January 4th, 2009 at 7:33 pm
Oh Ms T - as soon as you mentioned Ann Lammott, I was like, “Doesn’t she know CC can’t stand her?!” Then CC piped up and told you herself.