Writing about childhood is on my mind as I hope to publish a flash fiction memoir this year. I\u2019m not sure how much I thought about these issues while I was writing but they were certainly there, under the surface. I certainly struggled with my memories. Some things I remembered clearly but much of it was like swimming in a silty pond.<\/p>\n
How do we write about events that happened long ago? What should we leave in and what should we leave out? What do we actually remember and is what we remember truthful? My brother and I found a lamb in a barn when we were little but he is convinced he found the lamb first and I am just as convinced I did. Which one of us is correct? Does it matter?<\/p>\n
Research tells us that memory can be faulty, although we don\u2019t need to be told – we know this ourselves. Who hasn\u2019t sworn blind they have put their house keys in a particular place only to find them somewhere else altogether? The past is even trickier. There are things my brother remembers about growing up I don\u2019t remember, although sometimes if he mentions a name or an event, I find I have a faint recollection. Conversely there are events he can\u2019t recall, or events where he does remember but where his take on it is quite unlike my own. Some of this may be due the fact that he is two years younger, and some because his experiences were different. Some may be due to the fact that we differ in our approach to life.<\/p>\n
I don\u2019t think I can recall anything much before I was five years old \u2013 although I seem to remember being scared by the bell-ringing practice from the nearby church and I\u2019m sure I was in my carry-cot then. However my mother used to tell stories about how I cried when the bells rang. So is this a \u2018true\u2019 memory or something I have created from her account?<\/p>\n
At the Back of the Scythe Works <\/em>(published early last year on the Black Country Arts Foundry website) was constructed from a real event but the Travellers in the story didn\u2019t leave quite as I tell it. However I don\u2019t believe that really matters because what is true is that the Travellers did <\/em>vanish from our village at some point and their way of life changed irrevocably. In the story I don\u2019t call them Travellers – I call them \u2018gypsies.\u2019 That word isn\u2019t acceptable today but I used the word because that\u2019s what we called them back then and I felt it would be inauthentic to use another word. Context is important here. <\/p>\n Writing any type of memoir can also bring up many other ethical and moral issues. My own childhood was not particularly traumatic but nonetheless, as is the case with most of us, there were difficult times, some of which I only understood later in life. My parents and relatives of their generation are no longer alive but my brother and cousins are. Should I \u2013 should you – include memories which might upset family members? What if my memory of an event is disputed by another? Writing about difficult and hurtful events is not easy but surely a memoir that only includes the sunny days of childhood is a kind of falsehood? I mentioned context above. It\u2019s equally true for difficult events. What might be acceptable now \u2013 for example a pregnancy outside marriage \u2013 might not have been acceptable decades ago. I don\u2019t think it\u2019s a matter of leaving such things out but a matter of being sensitive and in the end only the writer can decide. Your story is yours.<\/p>\n Article first published in Authors Electric Feb 2019 <\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Writing about childhood is on my mind as I hope to publish a flash fiction memoir this year. I\u2019m not sure how much I thought about these issues while I was writing but they were certainly there, under the surface. I certainly struggled with my memories. Some things I remembered clearly but much of it … Continue reading Writing about childhood<\/span>