How-To Tuesday: Fact-Checking Family Stories: Using Research Tools in Memoir (Brandon Arvesen)

It is no surprise to nonfiction writers that piecing together a memoir is a messy process. The word alone is problematic, stemming from the French word “mémoire” meaning “memory” or “reminiscence.” At its core memoir is just that—a recollection of past events.

Writing memoir demands that writers descend into memory and to engage readers with accurate and meaningful details. Writers and their subjects remember stories, but are they accurate? Memory is flexible, unreliable, and vulnerable to hyperbole. How can any memoirist honestly engage in the process of telling true stories?

This talk emphasizes the essential use of reporting and research in narrative writing. Attendees will follow author, editor, and professor Brandon Arvesen as he traces a family myth about his own adoption from a reminiscence to reportable fact for a current in-process essay. This session will explore:

• How meticulous and diligent research can lead to stronger narrative construction.
• Effective research practices for memoir writers with works in progress.
• A variety of online and in-person tools for tracking down sources, fact checking, recreating scenes, and more.
• A string of questions and answers that helped Brandon take a story from apocryphal to factual.