out there.Another stumbling block: Newbie writers need to constantly prove that they’re beyond the trauma—are recording it from some enlightened new self.
This impulse cuts the drama. Case in point, a good friend of mine worked for years to write out her childhood abuse. She unpacked and unpacked, and still found herself blithely tossing off phrases such as “Around the summer of my seventeenth rape …”Badly told tragedy comes off as comedy.
Pure truth doesn’t carry enough authority. It’s how you deliver the truth that matters.Excerpted from Palahniuk’s Scribd Originals essay, "People, Places, Things: My Human Landmarks.".