Truth and Consequences
In the wake of another fake-memoir controversy, a Pennsylvania author and memoir-writing teacher encourages a focus on the facts.
Nashville, TN, March 23, 2008 --(PR.com)-- Writing the story of your life can be healing for you and a gift for future generations—but only if what you write is true, says memoirist Linda C. Wisniewski, whose first book, Off Kilter: A Woman’s Journey to Peace with Scoliosis, Her Mother, & Her Polish Heritage, is being published by Pearlsong Press.
Wisniewski is a Doylestown, PA librarian, newspaper feature writer and teacher of adult education memoir classes. As she was nearing the April 2008 publication date of her own memoir, national media erupted with a publishing scandal: A book said to be the true story of a half-Native American girl’s experiences as a foster child running drugs for gangs in Los Angeles turned out to have been written by a white woman who’d grown up with her biological family in a well-to-do suburb.
As tough as the publishing market is today, such fraud is just not necessary, Wisniewski says. “Passing off a fake story as true will only harm you in the long run. Even if your lie is never discovered, it’s bad karma for you and the rest of the creative world.”
Perhaps some authors need a refresher course on the difference between a novel and a memoir, Wisniewski adds. Writers of creative nonfiction such as personal essays and memoirs use techniques borrowed from novelists to describe scenes, events, or characters. Such techniques as composite characters, conflating time, and recreating dialogue make a story stand out visually and emotionally, “something straight journalism cannot do.”
“It’s understood that the emotional truth of the story is more important than details like the weather, the colors of clothes, and the food on the table,” Wisniewski adds. “But the event being described must actually have happened, even if we don’t remember the exact words a person said or report the entire conversation.”
In Wisniewski’s case, the facts are as follows:
Diagnosed with scoliosis at 13, young Linda (nee Ciulik) had long felt emotionally off kilter. Born to a cruel father and long-suffering mother in the insulated Polish Catholic community of Amsterdam, New York, she learned martyrdom as a way of life.
Off Kilter shows her learning to stretch her Self as well as her spine as she comes to terms with her mentally deteriorating, widowed mother and her culture. Only by accepting her physical deformity, her emotionally unavailable mother, and her Polish American heritage does she finally find balance and a life that fits.
Maureen Murdock, author of Unreliable Truth: On Memoir & Memory, calls Off Kilter “a courageous, insightful book, particularly relevant for anyone who grew up feeling physically ‘different.’”
Off Kilter is available from Amazon.com & other online retailers, by request from your favorite bookstore, and from the publisher at www.pearlsong.com.
Note: The article “Tips for Writing Memoirs” by Linda C. Wisniewski is available for reprint free of charge (with attribution) in your publication if desired. For a PDF of the article, see
http://www.pearlsong.com/newsroom/lindacwisniewski/MemoirTipsLW.pdf
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Wisniewski is a Doylestown, PA librarian, newspaper feature writer and teacher of adult education memoir classes. As she was nearing the April 2008 publication date of her own memoir, national media erupted with a publishing scandal: A book said to be the true story of a half-Native American girl’s experiences as a foster child running drugs for gangs in Los Angeles turned out to have been written by a white woman who’d grown up with her biological family in a well-to-do suburb.
As tough as the publishing market is today, such fraud is just not necessary, Wisniewski says. “Passing off a fake story as true will only harm you in the long run. Even if your lie is never discovered, it’s bad karma for you and the rest of the creative world.”
Perhaps some authors need a refresher course on the difference between a novel and a memoir, Wisniewski adds. Writers of creative nonfiction such as personal essays and memoirs use techniques borrowed from novelists to describe scenes, events, or characters. Such techniques as composite characters, conflating time, and recreating dialogue make a story stand out visually and emotionally, “something straight journalism cannot do.”
“It’s understood that the emotional truth of the story is more important than details like the weather, the colors of clothes, and the food on the table,” Wisniewski adds. “But the event being described must actually have happened, even if we don’t remember the exact words a person said or report the entire conversation.”
In Wisniewski’s case, the facts are as follows:
Diagnosed with scoliosis at 13, young Linda (nee Ciulik) had long felt emotionally off kilter. Born to a cruel father and long-suffering mother in the insulated Polish Catholic community of Amsterdam, New York, she learned martyrdom as a way of life.
Off Kilter shows her learning to stretch her Self as well as her spine as she comes to terms with her mentally deteriorating, widowed mother and her culture. Only by accepting her physical deformity, her emotionally unavailable mother, and her Polish American heritage does she finally find balance and a life that fits.
Maureen Murdock, author of Unreliable Truth: On Memoir & Memory, calls Off Kilter “a courageous, insightful book, particularly relevant for anyone who grew up feeling physically ‘different.’”
Off Kilter is available from Amazon.com & other online retailers, by request from your favorite bookstore, and from the publisher at www.pearlsong.com.
Note: The article “Tips for Writing Memoirs” by Linda C. Wisniewski is available for reprint free of charge (with attribution) in your publication if desired. For a PDF of the article, see
http://www.pearlsong.com/newsroom/lindacwisniewski/MemoirTipsLW.pdf
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Contact
Pearlsong Press
Peggy Elam
615-356-5188
www.pearlsong.com
www.pearlsong.com/offkilter.htm
Peggy Elam
615-356-5188
www.pearlsong.com
www.pearlsong.com/offkilter.htm
Contact
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