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Does it take courage to write a memoir?
By admin | October 7, 2008
by Anna McClain Washington
Memoirs are often best sellers and are always best when written from the heart. Really, can a memoir even be a best seller if it doesn’t come from the heart? Read reviews of noteworthy memoirs and you’ll likely find a long list of one or more of the many following descriptions: personal, honest, candid, revealing, generous, touching, moving, inspiring, powerful, raw, gut-wrenching, heart-rending, insightful, witty, humorous, funny, warm, forgiving, and poignant. Goodness, how can any book be all of those things at the same time?
Poignant by definition is: piercing; touching; keenly felt. A memoir, a really good one, I think, shares the truths of life. Unlike ink upon paper, real life is not just black and white. Yet, the reader comes to the page to share the most deep and most private thoughts about turning points, people, or recurring themes which became truths of molding the memoirist’s life. Together the writer and the reader share in surviving some of life’s most profound, most tragic moments which have hopefully resulted in life’s most triumphant ones. Hence, pain and joy are recounted in the journey of the senses and feelings of moving from one point of time or belief to another, a journey befitting every emotionally-charged descriptive word. I believe great memoirists invite the reader into the core of their heart, where surviving becomes a story bursting to be told and one yearning to be heard. It is our human nature.
We long to know that even some of life’s most disturbing truths do have purpose, if not at least to reassure us we will be given strength and courage in our times of need to keep trying and keep hoping. We need to know there are, and we can find happier endings to whatever real or imagined pitfalls life may throw at us. Memoirs offer up hope for that. After all, if a person can survive and even triumph through the difficult times about which we read, then we can too. We are reassured survival and success really is born from within. We are not prisoners of the world whims around us. We have an inner strength and power to change our own life circumstances. Fiction offers us possibilities, but in the final analysis it is still fiction, Memoirs are non-fiction accountings of truths proving we can be set free, for they are suppliers of real hope. Hope is where living is reborn and courage begins.
For me, great memoirists offer us a window into the core of their soul. Their memoir may feel like reading the rawest feelings found in a diary or journal with only the slightest of editing done for a bit of privacy. The memoirist’s ability to maintain privacy and still balance honesty and truth with vivid descriptions using all the senses (sight, sound, touch, smell and taste) finds a tricky tight-rope upon which to tread.
A memoirist shares self at the risk of scrutiny and judgment for thoughts penned to paper. Are we as brave? Have we learned lessons of survival that in the end proved humor, wit, warmth, forgiveness, acceptance of life itself and maybe even the courage to laugh at ourselves will see us through our own journey?
I ask you the question I ask myself as I put finishing touches on my memoir titled Audie and Me, Sisters Forever; how much privacy are we willing to give away, to heal, touch and hopefully inspire readers who share our story, and are willing to meet us on the black and white page?
Topics: General Content | 2 Comments »
October 12th, 2008 at 4:59 pm
Anne,
Your elegant, honest writing is a delight to read and to ponder. Thank you!
C.
February 4th, 2009 at 8:07 pm
Anna,
It will be hard to wait for your “best seller” to be on store shelves. I will be the first in line to buy it. I love your style, and class. I can tell you write from your heart. I look forward to your first, second, and I know you have a third book to be published. “Does it take courage to write a memoir?” My comment to that is .. it take more than courage, it also takes heart and soul. Thank you for sharing yours with the world. (Thank George for sharing You.)