Excerpt
Creative Nonfiction or Fictionalized Facts?
Creative Nonfiction
It has been said that creative nonfiction is a hybrid of literature and nonfiction. In other words, the methods of scene setting, dialogue, and character development (all employed in creating fictional stories) are used to give substance to flesh and blood individuals and their life events. In short, it shows rather than tells.
Creative nonfiction never changes a fact or event, no matter how dry or unimaginative the fact might seem. It does, however, give a writer the freedom to flesh out a story using research into an era or event and build upon known facts making this form of writing perfect for genealogy stories.
As every school teacher knows, students learn best when the subject matter is presented in an entertaining format. This doesn�t mean the teacher dons a clown hat when reciting the facts about the American Revolution. It means the era is brought to life, battles made vivid, and personalities memorable � all while sticking to the facts. In other words, using creative nonfiction tenets, learning is made enjoyable. And, that is what a writer of family legends hopes to do with the very real lives of ancestors.
Historical figures come alive under the writing genius of David McCullough. One gains new appreciation for our country�s first president, General George Washington, in McCullough�s novel, 1776. In another novel, John Adams, our second president becomes a memorable personality with very real strengths and frailties. David McCullough informs his reading audience, while entertaining them as well.
Genealogy, by definition, conjures images of statistical bits of information. A recitation of our long dead ancestor�s names with birth, marriage, and death dates are not likely to become bedtime reading. Dates are only milestones. There is much more that occurs in between � love, hopes, dreams, hardships, failures, successes, adventures.
A few decades ago, people gathered on the front porch or around the fireplace after dinner for storytelling. Family history was kept alive by the telling and retelling of long past events. In today�s age of television and visually spectacular movies, it is harder to retain the interest of family members in what is often considered boring facts about people they never knew.
Almost every family has snippets of legend or stories about various ancestors, whether it is as interesting as a great-grandfather who traversed the Chilkoot Trail to prospect for gold in the Klondike or as simple as a family�s trek west by wagon train.
Jack London adventured into the far north and wrote of prospectors and dogsledders from personal experience. Fortunately for us, the explosion of the Internet makes it possible to research any subject from the comfort of our own desk. Although it would be helpful, it is not necessary to travel thousands of miles to learn that when great-grandfather prospected for gold in the Klondike, he was required by Canadian law to shoulder almost a ton of food (2,000 pounds) and endure hardships unimaginable in our day and age.
The journey our ancestors made by wagon train was no walk in the park. Through the marvel of research (Internet or books), we learn wagons rarely had springs, or brakes, for that matter. Downhill travel posed special problems solved by chaining one wheel to create a drag. A typical family of four carried approximately 2,100 pounds of food (flour, lard, bacon, beans, dried fruit, coffee, and salt) which meant space inside the wagon was at a premium. All but the very young and old had to walk vast distances regardless of the weather. Given the bumpy ride, walking was probably preferable to the jostle over deeply rutted roads or rocky and uneven ground.
When a writer weaves such research into great-grandfather�s gold prospecting adventure or the overland journey by wagon train, the story comes alive, engages the reader, and creates a new appreciation for these ancestors.
So how is it possible to set an ancestor into the narrative without crossing the line into fiction? This is most easily done with what I term conditional wording: very likely or most likely, perhaps, no doubt, would have, probably, without a doubt, whether or not, and may have. These sort of indefinite terms make it plain that you are using conjecture.
For example, it is impossible to know with certainty what great-grandfather thought as he stood at the bottom of the Chilkoot Trail and looked up at the line of struggling gold miners ahead of him, all burdened with monstrous packs. Therefore, to stay in the creative nonfiction mode, the event could be written as:
As great-grandfather stood shivering in the knee-deep snow at the bottom of the mountain and studied the endless line of men trudging upward, he undoubtedly had misgivings about his whole gold-seeking adventure.
Fictionalizing the Facts
Another method of preserving family legends is by fictionalizing the known facts. While most ardent genealogists would abhor stating anything that wasn�t an absolute fact, I do not find gently fictionalizing a story objectionable as long as the storyteller doesn�t go off on a tangent and have the ancestor doing something totally undocumented or out of character. In other words, if great-grandfather is only known to have prospected in the Yukon, I wouldn�t put him prospecting in the Cassiar Mountains, or travel off to the gold strike in Nome, Alaska. Build upon the bare bones of the legend.
The novel, Roots: The Saga of an American Family by Alex Haley followed the journey of six generations from abduction into slavery until after the Civil War. The novel had many of its basics in family fact, but obviously was fictionalized for story�s sake. Sally Jadlow, author of The Late Sooner, crafted her novel from one-line diary entries of her great-grandfather over a nearly ten-year span in the newly created land opening of Oklahoma Territory. We glimpse slices of American life and history in each of these stories and are carried along with the characters through their struggles and triumphs.
Though such fictionalizing informs the reader of life in another era and adds to the entertainment value, the danger in straying from the principles of creative nonfiction to tell an ancestor�s story is possibly casting doubt on the entire episode. And, that is the chance a writer takes when he/she decides to slip into fictionalizing a conversation or event.
In the world of genealogy, documentation is the most important aspect of recording an ancestor�s life. When you attempt to fictionalize, such notation is doubly important. What puts your character in a particular location, doing a particular thing? Whatever the basis of your story is, even if it is only family legend that has been passed down, it should be noted as such. Additionally, the caveat �this event (or life) has been fictionalized for entertainment�s sake,� should be added to clarify your intentions.
Or, as Sally Jadlow, the author of The Late Sooner, clearly notes in her introduction, �The basic story line is true and the historical facts, carefully researched. Where he [great-grandfather, Sanford] left gaps, I filled in the blanks.�
For most of us, recording ancestor legends is meant for family enjoyment as well as preserving the legend for descendants. For the truly ambitious, those who intend on crafting the family saga into a novel to publish and sell, utilizing the creative nonfiction method is probably the best approach to establish the book as totally authentic.
Whether employing creative nonfiction methods or fictionalizing the known facts, using one of these techniques to flesh out the basic story helps to preserve it in the minds of descendants and ensure survival of the event for generations.
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