Post 8 Truth in a Memoir

Readers do need clear lines between different genres of books. Readers are picky, they come to enjoy a certain style of writing, and they generally read books that fall into that style. Writers however, like to have freedom in the creative process of piecing together a novel. They straddle the lines between two different genres, because they grow wary of writing the same type of book over and over again. This can be a problem for readers, who usually stick within a certain genre because if they buy a book claiming to be "fantasy" they want that book to be made of a "fantasy" story. Novelists run into a particulary sticky genre clash when writing memoirs. In my opinion, if you want to write a memoir you need to be as truthful as possible. When you add false details, you can no longer classify your work as non-fiction. If you want more detail or excitement, don't label it a memoir, make it a fictional story with realisitic elements. Change more than a few things, change names and places while keeping the core of the story the same. And if it makes you feel better, when it's published write on the cover "Inspired by true events".  You can't expect readers to be happy if they find out what they thought was true was in fact falsified. Staying within the genres in place is really the most sensible thing to do.