1/04/2005
Memories are meant to be shared. . .
Sixty years is a long time to wake up beside the same person every day. In a couple of weeks my siblings and I are throwing a stroll down memory lane celebration for our parents' sixtieth wedding anniversary. We all voted on ultra casual (we did the fancy for their 50th) so at least the hunt for the perfect outfit will be replaced by the hunt for a clean pair of jeans that doesn't make my rear look too big. Ok, I confess. I'll settle for clean.
In the meantime, I've confiscated mom's huge plastic tub full of pictures and am busily scanning them in to put on CD so we can do some kind of slide show. It's not as much fun strolling down M. Lane by yourself. I keep turning to my phantom helper and saying, "Remember this? We almost froze our toes off ice skating on the pond. Mom had hot chocolate on the stove when we got back." Or "LOOK! Do you remember that day Aunt Millie thought Tammy Jo had swallowed the powder lid? She forgot she had a phone and ran all the way to our house, holding the baby."
But no one answers. So, I just lift the lid and put in a new photo, not sure whether my memory is on target or not. Funny how time changes the past. My brother said the other day that if you get old enough you can completely rewrite your history and not even know it. It just happens one little thing at a time. The fish that got away grows an inch every year, as do honors bestowed, heroic actions, and numerous other events, until . . . VOILA! It's amazing all the drama you've managed to pack into one lifetime. Of course if you're a writer, you have a license to embellish fact and make it fiction.
My friend Tracey Bateman (OH! Check out her incredible new website!) and I were talking this morning about the blurry line between fact and fiction. It's clear enough for us, but what about our readers? I've had who-knows-how-many people comment about my family's Christmas on the road. Or ask me if I've learned to loosen up any. Or if my husband is as nice as he seems in that ALL JINGLED OUT book. I've never gotten these questions until ALL JINGLED OUT. It's the first person point of view. When you write "I", on a gut level readers believe you mean "I" as in the main character, her family, and friends are really a thinly-disguised version of you, your family, and friends. Here's my statement. It's just not true. . . Sure, when you write you take elements of people you know and of yourself, but you don't lump them all into one character. I told Tracey when her 2006 Claire series hits the best-seller lists, she'll have to get T-shirts for her and her family that say "It's JUST fiction!!" But we're not complaining. . .Writing in the first person is too much fun to give up!
Give yourself a gift - Jump up from your desk right now and go make a memory with your friends or family. Take pictures so a few decades from now, you'll know what REALLY happened. On second thought, if you think you'll feel the urge to be creative later, leave your camera on the charger and just paint the picture in your mind, to be colored gradually by your own senses and emotions. Either way, enjoy!
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In the meantime, I've confiscated mom's huge plastic tub full of pictures and am busily scanning them in to put on CD so we can do some kind of slide show. It's not as much fun strolling down M. Lane by yourself. I keep turning to my phantom helper and saying, "Remember this? We almost froze our toes off ice skating on the pond. Mom had hot chocolate on the stove when we got back." Or "LOOK! Do you remember that day Aunt Millie thought Tammy Jo had swallowed the powder lid? She forgot she had a phone and ran all the way to our house, holding the baby."
But no one answers. So, I just lift the lid and put in a new photo, not sure whether my memory is on target or not. Funny how time changes the past. My brother said the other day that if you get old enough you can completely rewrite your history and not even know it. It just happens one little thing at a time. The fish that got away grows an inch every year, as do honors bestowed, heroic actions, and numerous other events, until . . . VOILA! It's amazing all the drama you've managed to pack into one lifetime. Of course if you're a writer, you have a license to embellish fact and make it fiction.
My friend Tracey Bateman (OH! Check out her incredible new website!) and I were talking this morning about the blurry line between fact and fiction. It's clear enough for us, but what about our readers? I've had who-knows-how-many people comment about my family's Christmas on the road. Or ask me if I've learned to loosen up any. Or if my husband is as nice as he seems in that ALL JINGLED OUT book. I've never gotten these questions until ALL JINGLED OUT. It's the first person point of view. When you write "I", on a gut level readers believe you mean "I" as in the main character, her family, and friends are really a thinly-disguised version of you, your family, and friends. Here's my statement. It's just not true. . . Sure, when you write you take elements of people you know and of yourself, but you don't lump them all into one character. I told Tracey when her 2006 Claire series hits the best-seller lists, she'll have to get T-shirts for her and her family that say "It's JUST fiction!!" But we're not complaining. . .Writing in the first person is too much fun to give up!
Give yourself a gift - Jump up from your desk right now and go make a memory with your friends or family. Take pictures so a few decades from now, you'll know what REALLY happened. On second thought, if you think you'll feel the urge to be creative later, leave your camera on the charger and just paint the picture in your mind, to be colored gradually by your own senses and emotions. Either way, enjoy!
COMMENTS: Post a Comment
