Blog #8

I feel half-truths are almost cheating in a way. It's like you make up a story that stretches the truth and you realize that it wouldn't be popular if it was fiction because it's not exciting enough, but you know if you said it was completely true, it's be a very popular memoir. So you choose to make people believe that it's a 100% true story. That's not fair to non-fiction writers who are trustworthy and don't lie. You also get a ton of popularity and fame because people believe you're some brave super-human who went through this unimaginable event when in reality, you made half of it up.

Writers who add lies to enhance a true story do not deserve to be put under the non-fiction genre.

In my opinion, if you claim to have written a memoir, it has to be 100% true or else it should be called fiction.

In James Frey’s case, he did deserve to be called out. He made people feel bad for him and believe that he went through a way worse situation than he actually did. If people knew that he lied beforehand, he would most definitely not have sold nearly as many books as he had, let alone have gotten published in the first place. In my eyes, he cheated the system to get more success. If I had read his book and felt all these emotions for him only to later find out that he didn’t even go through the things he claimed he did, I would’ve been hurt. It would’ve completely changed my view on him as an author.