The Dangers of Dramatizing the Truth

When writing creative pieces, writers are destined to run into problems, both with their research and their writing. However, in creative nonfiction, if these issues are not overcome, it can be devastating to a writer’s credibility. Nonfiction is about real events and can, when presented inaccurately, offend or irritate readers and publishers alike, such as James Frey’s scandal about his false memoir, A Million Little Pieces. Therefore, I must highlight the issues I am having, in order to devise ways to overcome them. 

Lack Of Dialogue

Garfield might work without dialogue
John Keats? Not so much.

The main issue I am having with my piece is the lack of dialogue. Dialogue is a key component to the fictionalisation of any narrative. Yet Keats’ letters only depict what he did in Winchester; he did not write down any conversations verbatim. As well as this, the snippets that I have discovered so far in my research are not enough to carry an entire scene.
Theodore A. Rees Cheney states, in his book Writing Creative Nonfiction, “You must not let the desire to write interestingly…make you select those conversations that serve drama over truth.” Doing this may lead to your narrative losing credibility with your audience, so I must find a way to work around this issue, such as utilising quotes from his letters in a manner which supplements direct speech, or expanding my research to see what I can discover.

Too Much Information

Another problem I have is the overabundance of information about Keats that is available to me as a writer. Googling John Keats generates over two million hits, and there are numerous books from which I am drawing information from. However, the credibility and accuracy of these documents – especially the online sources– is not entirely secure. “Information is the goal of the nonfiction writer” Gutkind points out, and as such I need to make sure that my sources are reliable. Presenting wrong information, especially when it is dramatized, could mislead my readers factually, as well as emotionally. To avoid this, I must investigate my sources to ensure that my information is correct, and will not offend or dissuade my readers from my piece.