Blog #3: Forget What You Think You Know

I think that Tracy Kidder had a valid point when she said that there has to be accuracy in Creative Nonfiction, however, I think that the very nature of memory can make the task of accuracy nearly impossible. As we learned in the first week of class, memory can be tricky. It comes in bits and pieces and may not always be accurate. I think that perhaps the fact that she is a journalist informed her concentration on accuracy. While Creative Nonfiction needs to be accurate in that every event should have really happened, and every reaction should be genuine, I do not believe that the writer of a creative nonfiction piece has no room for inventiveness. Within the constraints of truth, there can always be flair. Another thing that struck me was the idea of point of view in a Creative Nonfiction piece. I, in my naiveté, thought that a creative nonfiction piece must be in the first person, as everything is essentially about the writer. Kidder’s statement about picking a point of view that fits the situation was something I had never even considered before. This broadens my definition of creative nonfiction vastly to include those other points of view. That also means that my assumption that creative nonfiction is almost always an exploration of the self, as per my last blog, must not be right as well. At this point, I thought I had the answer to that question, but it’s obvious that I don’t.

The Lott essay also had a lot in it to think about, Dr. Chandler’s dislike of him notwithstanding. I knew that creative nonfiction employed the use of the tools of craft that are used by fiction writers, but that does not mean that I realized that I must make myself into a character. Also, being asked to inventory oneself in the way that we did during Monday’s class in an attempt to turn ourselves into characters was a very interesting exercise in ego checking, which is something Lott says is necessary in the process of turning oneself into a character. I had not given much thought into having to give my readers more information about myself than was absolutely necessary to convey the idea that my piece is trying to put forth, but according to lot, that kind of biographical information is vital to the livelihood of the piece.

I honestly don’t know what to say about the other essay, so I’m just going to end it with this: I no longer know what my definition of creative nonfiction is, so I will have to rework my ideas and see if I can get through on instinct until then. I have a lot more reading and learning to do to integrate these ideas into my definition.