What are the rules on characters in memoirs?

Aphclyde

I'm a selfpublished literary fiction writer who is attempting to write a memoir. The characters in this memoir are pretty good. Very solid. My concern is what I am doing now is take conversations I've had with a real person and transcribing that precise coversation as a dialogue between me and the representation of that character. Does this make any sense at all? I guess I'm askign what the rules are for writinng memoirs. Any help is appreciated.

Your Artsy Girl

Hi,

From what I can remember you can preface ambiguous dialogue or scenes with a "I can imagine he said...." or "It was as if he said..." or "I want to say that the moment of truth was..."; which to me, has a wonderful tone.

Most dialogue in memoir's are partially true anyway. I don't think memoir writers took reporter notes or dictation to everything that was ever said.

What comes to question is how much have the truth been embellished such as James Frey's infamous memoir, "A Million Little Pieces".

Hope this helps somewhat....:-)

carin dupin

Your question makes me smile. You wrote in 'what am i looking for?' : "So the writers I want to be in touch with are more edgy and crazy and pretty much completely insane; like me." and now you ask what are the rules! If you want to push the boundaries than you need to risk breaking a few rules.

to my way of seeing things i can't imagine any literary fiction that is, as you also wrote in the 'what am i looking for?' :

"But I have to say that as a more modernist writer I feel I have far more in common with writers who break the mold and try new things. In other words, I feel that true art needs to be inspiring and exciting, and that writers who do what everyone else is doing, and do it poorly, don't move the Art of Writing forward, and instead hold it back and keep the status quo."

that any writer who is able to rise to the occasion of what you're speaking of by necessity is writing a memoir, or as Auden said, writing that is honest because it comes from real experience and especially because there is no hard line between the artist and their art. I would say write your memoir in whatever way feels true and appropriate and meaningful to you and forget the rules. if it works for you it will work for others. leave the rules to the critics who only create rules in order to hold onto their jobs!

i like where you are coming from and would like very much to read what you write because what i read on your profile strikes me as being honest. keep it up!

ronnierayjenkins

Be true to thyself.