http://fictionwritersreview.com/blog/real-life-novel-or-memoir fiction matters Thu, 09 Feb 2012 03:57:32 -0600 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8 hourly 1 http://fictionwritersreview.com/blog/real-life-novel-or-memoir/comment-page-1#comment-3255 Jes Fri, 04 Dec 2009 18:28:06 +0000 http://fictionwritersreview.com/?p=5790#comment-3255 Thanks for this post, Celeste. It's a resonant and sticky subject for the fiction writer: how to avoid the trap of thinking that goes, "If it's real, it's worth a story." The idea that a moment or event, however absurd, eye-catching, hilarious or pathetic, does not make a story, but must be shaped <i>into</i> a story with hard-work and elbow grease is something I come back to again and again when things aren't working. Even great memoirs, like Hemingway's <i>A Movable Feast</i> or Shirley Hazzard's <i>Greene on Capri</i>, have the careful shaping of the best short story collections - spare, considered, every word weighed. Thanks for this post, Celeste. It’s a resonant and sticky subject for the fiction writer: how to avoid the trap of thinking that goes, “If it’s real, it’s worth a story.” The idea that a moment or event, however absurd, eye-catching, hilarious or pathetic, does not make a story, but must be shaped into a story with hard-work and elbow grease is something I come back to again and again when things aren’t working. Even great memoirs, like Hemingway’s A Movable Feast or Shirley Hazzard’s Greene on Capri, have the careful shaping of the best short story collections – spare, considered, every word weighed.

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