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Hello, I am Joy , this week's drama editor. This issue is about writing the autobiography and the autobiographical fiction.
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Welcome to the Drama newsletter
As writers, we dip into our own personal lives, every now and then. At times, we use a whole lot of our personal experiences, donating them to our fictional characters. At other times, we use a fictional venue while we are totally using our own life in its entirety. This would be autobiographical fiction, which is different than an autobiography.
Then, there is the memoir, which is shorter than both forms, and because of its shortness, it usually employs a more artistic handling. In a fictional form or memoir, the writer may skip over some parts of his life, but in an autobiography, since the entire life is to be exposed, gaps and voids in the timeline or the narration should be avoided.
In this editorial, I’ll try to address the autobiography and the long fiction based on one’s personal life. Both forms are reality-based and deserve a serious research and study.
As to the mechanics of the autobiography, making a general outline in the beginning should help navigate the actual writing, without feeling bound to the outline totally. Then, at the end, you can take a breather, fact-check once more, and revise the work accordingly.
As true-to-form as the autobiography is, some research is still needed. Most of us forget things from our pasts, like the names of people, places, or schools, and the dates of the events. If the writer never kept a journal or didn’t note these things in detail, he has a serious amount of researching to do especially if he tries to write his autobiography in his old age.
In an autobiography, the writer doesn’t hide behind his fictional characters. He uses his own name and his experiences as he has lived them and seen them from his point of view. His purpose is to document his own life and personal experiences. A good autobiography contains the writer’s experiences from birth, or as early as he can remember, to the present day.
Minimizing or brushing aside the most important and crucial points in one’s life, because it is so hurtful for them to write about, takes away from the desired effect of one’s autobiography. I suggest, if you are writing your autobiography, you write those most hurtful parts separately in their entirety as if only for yourself and then incorporate them into the main text. This way, you’ll know what to cross out and what to keep without hurting the fluidity and realism of your work.
The flow, of course, is a very important aspect of a story. For this, any mundane detail has to be omitted. Unless a certain detail is important to the life of the writer--such as some memory or event that keeps coming up here and there in his life--, staying away from unnecessary information can be a wise choice.
When it comes to wise choices in an autobiography, the other characters in the writers’ life have to be treated with truth, but their negative or positive sides should be shown with caution, realism, nuance, and their impact on the writer’s life. There certainly should not be any mud-slinging or dirty politics, so to speak. A fair perspective is what is needed.
In autobiographical fiction, the writer has more of a license in changing or truthfully expressing the main facts of his life as he inserts his real experiences into the lives of his characters. Thus, writing the autobiographical fiction is, in some ways, similar to writing the autobiography, but in its fiction form. Here, you can always change the personalities, names, and facts of the supporting characters and even that of yourself.
For example, in Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath, Plath is the talented and successful Esther Greenwood, who slowly goes under a mental breakdown. The same is true of Thomas Wolfe’s Look Homeward Angel, where Thomas Wolfe is the main character, Eugene Gant. Then, there is Heartburn by Nora Ephron, Black Boy by Richard Wright, and The Joy Luck Club by Amy Tan, to name a few.
To write the autobiographical novel, you’ll need to create a central character with a narrative arc and add your memories and descriptions to the mix. It is like creating any fiction piece, but here, you are also basing the story on your facts.
May all your work shine, real or imagined!
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 This Issue's Tip: Autobiographies and memoirs are closely related as they are the direct experiences of their authors. While autobiographies place more importance on facts and history, whilst memoirs lean heavily on emotional experience.
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Drama: March 29, 2023 Issue [#11876]
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