Wayson Choy, author of The Jade Peony, spoke at the Humber School for Writers about creative nonfiction and the courage it takes to write it. His talk was called “Speak, Memory” and here are the notes I took:
What used to be called memoir is now called creative nonfiction. It encompasses writing that is from a personal point of view, experiences as we understand them, not necessarily “the facts.”
Understand the difference between the truth of your experiences and factual truths. For example, you have an investment in the mother you know as mother. Your story about your mother may be different from a sibling’s story. Write your story.
What is essential to the story is often invisible, such as emotion. Writing at the literary level means to write with a keener sense of knowing. The things you comfortably remember are boring. Don’t settle for what is comfortable.
Some people worry about what others will think. What will my mother think? What will my father think? “I’m comfort-blind,” said Wayson Choy. “I want discomfort. Education is the process of disturbance. I want the truth of my experience, not illusion.”
Wayson Choy talked about his background: “Chinatown [in Vancouver] was an outside colony where people were not wanted. It was a ghetto.” We internalize the oppression we experienced growing up.
Be aware, he warned the audience, about “toxic certainties.” Any certainty, especially when you think you are one degree better than someone else, is a toxic certainty. “Drop your judgments so you see the world new,” he advised. “Sit down. You have a theme. Love? What are your certainties about it? What judgments?” These certainties cause us to skirt around the story. “Love has no rules,” he stated.
If you are writing a memoir that matters, know yourself. It takes courage and daring. Astonish yourself.
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