Reflection Part Two- Talking about the Big Stuff

"I was struck by the profound gap in what people remember as important or surprising or tragic."

Page 30, Writing Creative Nonfiction

One of my biggest concerns when writing creative nonfiction has been whether or not I can remember everything that is needed to go into a story. Sometimes, I'll tell myself, "Yes, that's exactly what happened."

More often than not, though, my memory won't be the greatest in the world, whether it's because I simply forgot, or my own biases won't allow me to remember the truth fully. Then there's the whole case of my not wanting to remember something the way it truly happened, because the truth may make me uncomfortable or disgust me.

I liked what Laura Wexler and her journey in writing a piece about the 1946 lynchings in Walton County, Georgia, taught me personally. As a writer for both the George Anne and the Reflector, I've had the opportunity to find multiple points of view. One example that comes to my mind is covering President Bush's visit to Statesboro last year. After it occurred, I was asked to find out how he was really brought to our town. Many of my left leaning friends believed it to be a university breaking it's vow to remain non partisan. What I found out was that...it wasn't quite like that. In fact, the university had very little to do with what actually took place in Hanner that day. Putting my own personal biases aside, I was happy to write a story that didn't confirm what I already believed, and allowed me to find out how such an historic occasion could take place.