Mar 11 2009
lying or editing?
So it is time for me to fess up: not all of my personal anecdotes are 100% true. I mean, often they are, but sometimes I rearrange events or add a little character motivation or occasionally insert that line that I SHOULD have said but didn’t. I had someone earlier this week say that that made me a filthy liar and my reply was, “I’m not lying! I’m editing.”
And, to my mind, it’s true. I don’t fabricate entire events out of whole cloth, or turn people who zig into people who zag. But my innate tendency when I’m telling a story is to punch it up a bit. And I think I’m not alone in this, or at least I have David Sedaris on my side and that’s pretty good backup.
Really, so much of life now is about good self-PR. The whole social media thing? It’s all self-PR, which is part of the reason I so enjoy it. What is the “Jessica” brand? What does it believe in? What does it promote? What did it have for lunch? These are critical questions!
So does punching up the odd anecdote to make it more impactful* or more coherent or, yes, more flattering, constitute lying, or good old fashioned editing for your intended audience?
* “Impactful” is not strictly a word but it SHOULD BE.
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Down with Facebook! For all my Twittering and Digging and Blippring, I hate Facebook. It was kind of okay at first, and neat to catch up with old absentee friends. Then the interface got all cluttered with crap and I realized that I don’t actually care about that many people and my email box was hit with a plague of messages like, “That Person You Hated in High School wants you to join their Pirate Ninja Squad!” Despite the fact that some of my good friends still hang out there (Chris, dude, I am talking to you. Get a goddamned Twitter and save me some pain.), I refuse to participate.
on 11 Mar 2009 at 5:18 pm
I'm pretty sure everyone does what you're describing to some degree or another. Memory and perception of events are so fickle it would be difficult to present just the facts in most cases anyway.
Also, a strict adherence to facts can really get in the way of the meaning of a story. You are relating an event in which there was something important, interesting, funny or whatever to merit its retelling. It is horrible to let a few facts get in the way of a good story or relating the truth of a situation.
Save the long, dull, fact filled descriptions for the cops and lawyers. Most anyone else will appreciate a well told story even if you take a few liberties with the facts along the way. As long as it doesn't get too outrageous it's no big deal.
Impactful? have you joined a marketing department somewhere?
on 11 Mar 2009 at 5:49 pm
Test. I think Disqus is eating comments.
on 11 Mar 2009 at 5:26 pm
First, haven’t you learned from your Southern (as in U.S. South) relatives that it’s natural to add a few interesting details to make a personal anecdote more entertaining or humorous? As long as you don’t say anything hurtful . . . . No one wants to hear a dull story. Second, the genre that you might think of as the anecdote or personal essay is now most commonly referred to as creative non-fiction. I figure the creative part of the term is self-explanatory–as long as you don’t claim to have escaped from a gang in a large metropolitan area or to have been raised by large wild mammals, you’re copacetic.
on 12 Mar 2009 at 9:14 am
Hmm.. creative non-fiction. Thanks, Martha, that description helps a lot actually.
SDZ: The discoverability of our signage isn’t impactful on the ROI!