I’ve talked before about my mantra for writing, no matter what kind it is: get it right and tell the truth. Those can be slippery concepts for fiction. Nonfiction can be easier–depending on what it is you’re trying to tell the truth about, such as in memoir, where truth can often be an elusive concept.
I’ve not always been good at telling the truth in my life. But eventually I learned that lying burdens the brain because you’re always having to think harder to keep your story straight.
The other prong of it I got to thinking about recently as I did some neurological testing to see what might be causing my memory issues or if it was just normal aging. It turned out that I am functioning fine for someone my age. But the doctor did note some interesting findings–one of which was that during the testing, I emphasized doing a task correctly rather than doing it quickly.
Ah, here was a question with a clear answer from my life! I told him that was an easy one to solve; in school, I used to be the first one in class to finish tests, but I didn’t always make a perfect score. So my mom impressed on me that I only got credit for getting the right answers, not for turning the paper in quickly. So all my life, I’ve been oriented to getting right answers and doing something correctly rather than quickly.
Back in my day, some teachers would go over the answers to a test by calling on people who got the question incorrect to give their answer so the teacher could explain why their answer was wrong. The first time that happened to me, I wanted to sink down through the floor in shame. That experience stuck with me my whole life–so I try as much as possible to get the details right in whatever I’m writing.
All of this, of course, can stop creativity in its tracks. The trick I use is to write about what I know I can get right first–then fill in the blanks with research and expert opinion. At least that’s the goal.
How do you approach truth in writing? Let us know in the comments!
Julie Liddell Whitehead 
That is interesting to me–the compulsion to tell the truth. I also have a heavy dose of that. My mother first taught me to never lie… I had a teenage stepsister who had a problem with lying. Mom was a young step mother, and Dad left her to her own devices. She was frustrated, understanding the reasons this girl lied, and the difficulties she faced at her home (her mother’s home). I remember her preaching to me as a very little girl about how messy lying could get as you struggle to keep the stories straight. I talked about honesty with my mother a LOT.
But as I aged into my teen years, she started expecting me to lie my way around my stepdad. She’d say, “Do you have to tell everything you know?” She’d sneer at me and accuse me of standing on some sort of moral high ground. Talk about mixed messages!
Of course, after she died, I learned that she had lied to me for my entire life about who I was and who she was. Meanwhile, I’ve stunted my economic opportunities all my life because I cannot tell a lie! And disreputable behavior by whomever will always make me turn away from that person, who has frequently been an employer. I can’t work for anyone I can’t respect, and lying is a quick way to lose my respect.
I think truth-telling, or honesty is a way of life.
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Very much so.
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