Though, I tried subscribing up via e-mail and it appears there is some technical problem, just to let you know.

When it is solved, I’ll sign up via e-mail.

Bamboo Forest – PunIntended´s last blog post..What’s the Deal with Chain Letters?

@ Urban Panther – Yes, perfect topic for debate!

(I have not read the James Frey book). I think the term “memoir” has the connotation of being based in memories, while “autobiography” sounds like it’s supposed to be “fact-based” to me. From what I understand, the memoir industry sells BIG, while fiction is on shakier ground. People want to believe that they are learning the truth — reading a true story.

It was actually a marketing decision for Frey to publish the book as a memoir instead of a novel — and that clearly backfired in many respects…although he did become famous and controversial.

When scandals like this are revealed, it pushes me to ask how much it matters. If the author conveyed that experience so vividly, if he allowed readers to live it, how much does it matter whether it actually happened or not?

I think it’s a sleazy move, to label a book as “memoir” so that it sells more copies, but I do think it proves that we are too devoted to the idea that what’s written is true.

How many history books have been grossly manipulated? How many official records have been censored?

@ Jesse – Chekhov is an excellent read for quality inner voice. And for strong, compact stories. I’ll definitely have to “Chek” that book out, if only because you made that pun .

As for the URL — I actually switched it more because I foresee wanting to use zoewesthof.com for something else. I didn’t initially intend to get so involved in blogging, but I now feel the blog merits a home of its own. zoewesthof.com still redirects here, as I don’t yet need to use it for other purposes.

What say ye?

BTW, I loved the book, and didn’t really care that it was ‘based on facts’ as opposed to ‘being facts’.

Urban Panther´s last blog post..Let there be organization … and there was!

Excellent post. I like the term “autobiographobia” very much. Thanks for sharing!

it has been my life experience that no one sees an event or scene the exact same way. How could we? Our brains are all wired differently, and it is what is called being an individual. Witness that by this little experiment. Write a short description. Gather 8 friends together. Send all out of the room but 2. Tell them your story, without them taking notes. (Use a lot of descriptive elements in your description – the one I always use is about an automobile accident.)

After you have told the first couple, take your seat and have the second couple come into the room. The first couple will tell them the story as they remember it. I can guarantee you this – that no matter how sharp these people are, that by the time the fourth couple tells the story back to you, it will be completely different than the original.

It is all about how we perceive things. what may be traumatic to you may seem like small potatoes to me. Life is driven by emotions, and the good storyteller writes this same way. I can guarantee you that if I wrote an exact account of my day, you would be bored to tears by the time you were one third the way through. Then, allow me to write it in the voice I use for fiction. I can safely bet that you would be amazed. It is just how these things work.

I have written all my life, and come from a family of writers. The biggest compliment I ever got was when my mother told my wife to “watch Alden, he is a wonderful liar.” This quote “The principal paradox of literature, then, is that by lying it simultaneously reveals and represses the truth about the author’s secret life” I find to me to be inaccurate. I think I might see this the other way around – to reveal your secret self is not something we would wish to do. But if we take that secret self, dress it up in literary clothing, it then becomes a masterpiece. And that is what I have always attempted to do…

Peace,

Alden~

Am I anywhere in the ballpark on this one?

Mentioning Chekhov caught my eye–I recently finished reading his Ward No. 6 and Other Stories; I loved it.

Reading his work definitely impresses upon the reader his view that our (and our characters’) inner life is the truest expression of who we are. Chekhov’s characters are plagued with intensley active inner lives.

If you haven’t read that collection of stories, you may want to “Chek” it out.

By the way, why did you change the url from your name to the blog name? I’ve been pondering the use of our own name vs. a “brand” name as a writer. Not sure where I stand right now.

Jesse Hines´s last blog post..Writing with Style is Easy if You Do 3 Simple Things

It’s uncanny how you always have something to say that relates to my own recent thoughts. I learn so much from reading your blog. Thank you for all the work you put into making Essential Prose the quality site that it is.

I’m saving the last paragraph you wrote in this post (the one in the middle of the Borges quote) to referrence later. Absolutely brilliant.

James A Woods´s last blog post..Seven Problems Every Writer Should Solve