Back from vacation and ready to dive back into the writing world. During downtime at the shore house I managed to write a new creative non-fiction short story (no title yet, I’m stuck*). I realized earlier this afternoon that nearly all my publishing credits are creative non-fiction, which is strange because I actually consider myself a fiction writer. I mentioned this realization on the phone with my boyfriend (he’s still at the shore, lucky duck) and he was like, “I hate to tell you, but that’s what you are. You’re good at it. You’re good at fiction too, but, well, you have a lot of interesting stories to tell that are true.” This worries me. I’m only 22-years-old. Sure, I’ve had some unusual and interesting experiences, but won’t they run out someday? I could practically hear my boyfriend shrug. “Then you’ll resort to fiction, I guess.”
Do memoir writers have a great deal of anxiety over this? Do they force themselves to go on adventures that they wouldn’t normally have just to create content? Do they fake the meaning of events and memories for the sake of writing something? Is this kind of anxiety what leads to fictionalized memoirs? What do you think?
*It’s about safety, family, over-protective fathers. Anybody got a title suggestion? I’m thinking “Safety First” is too hokey. Yes or no?
Hannah Karena Jones 