When we write a true story, such as our memoirs or the details of an event that occurred, is it always necessary to tell the whole truth and nothing but the truth? I don’t think so. In fact, I advise my clients to fudge a little. I often tell them to eliminate some of the facts. Why would I suggest they deviate from the truth and even, in some cases, tell a bald face lie? Why? Because sometimes the truth is BORING.
I’m not proposing that you compromise your story with untruths, but that you enhance it by NOT sharing so much truth. We probably don’t need to know every detail that led to the event you are writing about. But if it is a true story, sometimes you feel obligated to tell it exactly like it was. Leaving out a detail or glossing over something seems to you like you’re cheating the reader. On the contrary, if the detail is mundane and unimportant, you are doing us a favor by keeping it to yourself.
The best writing is tight writing. Sure, you want to use interesting phrases and imagery to tell a good story, but not to the point where it becomes a burden to the reader. By way of example, here are two phrases that come to mind. Both could have been elaborated on, but would they have been as poignant? One is, “Jesus wept.”
These two words say volumes. How this statement would have been ruined by an elaboration. We don’t care where he was, what he was wearing, how many times he stubbed his toe as he walked in his sandals, who else was with him. We don’t need to know any of this, do we? Not at this moment.
Another statement I’d like to use as an example is from Khaled Hosseini’s The Kite Runner. He opens the book by saying, “I became what I am today at the age of 12, on a frigid, overcast day in the winter of 1975.” Of course, we want to know more and we’re going to learn much more as we read through this story. But imagine this opening statement cluttered by unnecessary details.
Your reader probably doesn’t care to know the exact positioning of the houses on your block—that the one two doors up sits back further than the rest and you’re not quite sure why, but you feel it was a deliberate attempt at being a nonconformist, etc. They probably don’t care that Pumpkin was your 8th kitty friend. Why would you even tell them about the rickety back steps into the house, unless it relates somehow to the story?
Be careful about including unnecessary detail in your true story. Use only what is prevalent to the story—those things that move the story along or make it more interesting.
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http://www.matilijapress.com/course_bookpromotion.htm