Truth or Lie....depends on the writer and the form of writing...

Everyone says truthfulness is very important and most of the time writers should tell the truth, I definitely agree to this- it is always good to tell the truth in memoirs, novels, stories etc. The writer has the choice to make whether to tell the truth or to lie. I have come across writings that I have read seemed complete truth and the reader gets convinced that the incident took place, but later we learn that what we read was a made up incident and fictitious. After knowing that it was a lie readers do get a bit upset but the made up story definitely entertained the readers as intended by the writer.

Jhon Glassco’s Memoirs of Montparnasse is an interesting one; it is about his experience at a party that he was not invited to, but ends up going to the party. The memoir is well written and the reader definitely gets to believe that the incident took place, but it is said that most of his work is fictional; he made up the story that had not taken place. Even though it was not the truth I enjoyed reading it, but I think it is important to tell the truth in a memoir because it is something personal and you are writing about yourself.

In the case of memoirs sometimes when a writer is writing of an incident that took place long time back, it is not possible to recall each and every moment of the past, which leads to fictions and exaggerations that the writer uses to make the writing interesting and effective for the reader. I personally think that it is very important to be truthful but in some cases like the one mentioned above, a little bit exaggeration should be fine.