Having written and published ‘Look Homeward Angel,’ Thomas Wolfe was perplexed to learn he was no longer welcome in his hometown, Ashville, NC. A collective nerve had been hit. Wolfe had, at best, only thinly disguised the town and its people with his rambling descriptions, leaving individuals horrified by his impression of their lives. Few would welcome him back. They felt betrayed. Wolf’s impressions of each individual were beyond a doubt completely different than the impressions they had of themselves.
Yesterday, a student in the memoir class I am teaching spoke to me about a book of fiction he self-published. Apparently, many in his hometown recognized themselves in the characters and were not particularly happy. Hence, echoes of Thomas Wolfe.
It is important from the outset to distinguish whether you are writing fiction, creative non-fiction, memoir, autobiography or other genres. If you are writing anything that will be considered based in fact, be sensitive. The people in your life will recognize themselves, and will react. You are, after all, exposing them to the world. Be responsible.
If you are writing fiction and drawing on descriptions of the people in your life, let your imagination push your observations into new dimensions. Fiction requires this. Good characters are composites of many traits that have been drawn from multiple sources.
When I listened to the student describe the backlash from his book, I wondered if it would have been different had he submitted the work as creative non-fiction. His characters were not bad people. However, the real individuals they portrayed felt exposed and robbed of their identity, while they may have been flattered if included in work of memory and reflection.
Perhaps this was also the flaw in Wolfe’s fiction.