Yesterday I started my Memoir class. After reading the introduction, I was pleasantly surprised to learn that it’s okay to exaggerate some. The advice that was given was to write it how you saw and/or remembered everything about it, even if it wasn’t exactly true, (ex: stretching the truth in a conversation).
Like fiction, memoirs can be short or long. They both have to have some kind of plot, with a beginning, middle, and end, but the most important part, especially in memoirs, are the main character. You stories in either genre, have to make the reader want to turn the pages. We the writers, want you, the reader, to connect with the story or characters that have been created.
HERE is a blog that I wrote awhile back and I’d like to revisit the following question: When writing, how much are your characters like or unlike you?
Good question! There’s usually a little of me in my characters whether it’s my humor, quirks or pet peeves. Other times it’s someone that I’ve seen in a coffee shop that jumped out at me, someone in my life: present and past, or a combination of all. The more I write about them, the more my characters develop into who they want to be.
Sometimes when I write, yeah, my characters tend to “act” or “think” as I would in whatever fictional situation I’ve placed them in. I’ve caught myself doing this, laughed, and then rewritten “myself” out of the character or maybe even leave just a little bit of myself… just because it’s so cool to do so!