Unlocking Creativity: Elissa Altman Reveals the Radical Power of Saying ‘Yes’ in Memoir Writing
MDH: In your chapter on risk, you talk about magical thinking, the idea that even if we write about other people in the kindest of ways, and even if we’re telling our own story and not theirs, there’s always a risk that someone we value will be lost to us, and we shouldn’t imagine that it might be otherwise. Do you think every memoirist, no matter how prepared they think they are for the fallout, discovers after publication that they engaged in magical thinking?
EA: I think so. I think that anyone who sits in an office or at a desk or in a coffee shop writing is effectively creating a universe (and it doesn’t matter if you’re writing fiction or nonfiction). Somewhere along the line I made the discovery that women memoirists (and this is, of course, a broad generalization) will often chew on their fingers and sweat and torment themselves with doubt. Meanwhile, my guy memoir friends say, “I don’t understand why you’re fretting—just write it! And if something happens, just apologize!” It’s a very different take. Writing anything is risky. As Dani Shapiro famously said, “Nobody ever says, ‘Yay, there’s a memoirist in the family!’”