It’s almost always personal — and consequential — to tell the truth.

And . . . it changes the world.

Photo by Markus Winkler on Unsplash

I’ve recently been reading Handling the Truth: On the Writing of Memoir, by Beth Kephart. She speaks of how personal it is to tell one’s own story — even consequential. It strikes me that this has application far above and beyond memoir writing. On the back cover is this statement:

It is almost always personal — and consequential — to tell the truth.

I couldn’t agree more.

And . . . right alongside the risk of truth-telling, is the possibility, the benefit, and our hope:

“Every word a woman writes changes the story of the world, revises the official version.” ~ Carolyn See

I’m back and forth between these two bolded statements because of my own writing of late: the final edits of my manuscript. It’s not memoir, but still, personal — and consequential; not memoir, but certainly compelled by my dogged desire to “change the story of the world.” (Or at least the way we have been telling the stories . . . )

On the one hand, I am reminded that it’s not truth OR consequences (a reference to a very old TV game show — if you are too young to remember); it’s truth AND consequences. On the other hand, I am compelled by just how…