Readings and Thoughts on Creative Nonfiction

Author: Bronwyn T. Williams

Williams writes a segmented essay that includes opinions on writing through the eyes of the journalist, the writer, and the teacher. He then goes on to describe views on creative nonfiction in a in unison section, and wraps everything up in the coda section. In the first four segments, he always begins with "My father always said, 'Never let the truth stand in the way of a good story," but in the last segment, we find out his father actually never said that. Through the eyes of the journalist, writing must always be accurate and true, but through the eyes of the writer, writing is about the craft, and telling a good story. Yet, through the eyes of the teacher, it is hard to know where to draw the line, which is why, when all three viewpoints are in unison, it is important to keep in mind that people do like the truth, but they also like a good story. It is also important to know that writing gives you power, and to be careful with that power, and know who it may affect or how. Determining how far to go with each piece of writing should be done on a case-by-case basis, but that doesn't make it any easier. In Williams' case, he makes this clear when he writes rhetorical questions about the consequences for his mother in writing this piece, since it deals with some personal issues about his deceased father.

Below are a few select quotes from the piece, along with some of my thoughts regarding them.

This work on memory could make me insufferable to family and friends, particularly if I thought their accounts of events deviated even slightly from what I knew to be the truth.

This is from the point of the journalist, and I think it captures well the essence of the most meticulous journalists.

People tell stories, relate the events of their lives, in part because those stories are true. They want other people to know what happened. And they want to hear about what happened as close to the truth as possible.

Williams makes this point several times throughout his essay, and I think no matter how you see writing, this part is true.

Even if they were telling stories I sympathized with on a political level, they had betrayed the fundamental trust of journalists. They had told stories, told lies, in the guise of the truth.

As a student journalist, I have worked with several people who think this way. I also somewhat agree, at least if you are writing an article that the reader is expecting to be accurate and neutral, then telling a story would betray their trust.

Even worse, and this was something I knew viscerally long before I had worked it out in my head, I hated the liars because I knew that somewhere there might be a person who was being lied about. If a person's thoughts or actions or words were fabricated, or even if the person was simply misquoted, people would regard what they read as the truth. The real people in the story would be hurt by what was printed and yet have no effective way to respond.

I think it's interesting how in the journalist segment, Williams' changes the point of view of the narrator from becoming a meticulous fact-checker to one who wants to stretch the truth.

Williams also makes this point several times throughout his essay, and I think he wants to emphasize how this is something to consider for each piece you write about.

What I didn't bother to emphasize was that I would be the storyteller. I would control how the story was told. I would control how they would be represented. Their words. My story.

This is told from the point of view of the writer, however, the narrator is still a journalist. I don't agree with this statement because I think that when people are being interviewed for a journalist piece, they expect it to be accurate, and manipulating them is unfair.

I wish I could say that their wisdom made me stop. Mostly it made me work at being a better liar. I paid more attention to what was tipping them off, moderated the scope of my lies, and tried to understand what worked best with my audience.

I think it's interesting how Williams tells almost the exact same story about how he became a writer but with a different spin on it. It gives the reader something to think about.

Like many writers who also lack the courage to follow the craft, I went into journalism because it seemed one way to keep writing and eating at the same time.

I mostly agree with this statement. It may not be lack of courage that makes writers go into journalism, but may be lack of initial success that forces them to get a job that guarantees getting paid.

With each piece I wrote I began to wonder about the people who would see themselves in my writing. Who might be hurt? What obligations did I have to those who were the subjects of my writing?

This is an interesting ethical dilemma, and it seems to have come up in several of the pieces we have read for this class. It's definitely something to consider, but on a case-by-case basis.

I talk about the need to read and write critically, with one eye always turned to the unspoken assumptions underlying every argument and piece of evidence. I tell them this and I believe it. [...] I talk with them about the importance of avoiding the easy complacency of thinking one knows the "truth" and I try to make them understand how high the stakes are when we construct the truth in a way that lets us sleep soundly at night. I tell them this and I believe it.

As the teacher, Williams shows how hard it is to tell the students how they should approach writing. Both sides have valid points, but they also have some negative effects.

What, for me, was left unsaid throughout the session was the question of power.

Of course, family stories belong to all members of a family. It is only the writer, however, who gets to define those stories-even the stories that are true-in print for an audience of strangers to see. It is only the writer who decides which stories that larger audience "deserves" to hear.

I agree that the writer has power, since it is up to the writer to show a wide audience how he or she saw a particular event. It may not always show people in the best light, and it be not be one hundred percent accurate, but it is the writer's choice.