Writing Wednesday - 'In My Opinion...' A Writer's Rant

Anyone who knows me, knows I love my true crime. And I probably spend way to many hours listening to and watching court trials. Just like I did on Monday. I listened to the testimony in South Carolina about jury tampering and whether Alex Murdaugh gets a new trial. (By the way, Judge Toal was the bomb! Love her.)

During the trial they took testimony from Clerk of Court Rebecca Hill and whether she, and her bid for her book success, had any bearing on the outcome of the case. 

NOTE: Opinions expressed in this post are mine and mine along. And I do own a copy of her book.)

I did buy a copy of the book when it came out. I found it a bit 'insipid' and gave it a 3-star review on Goodreads. And then the shit book hit the fan, so to speak. And continues to be basis of a TON of continuing issues.

But when listening to Hill on the stand and having to answer questions about her book, my writer-self was cringing. If ever (in my opinion) there was a situation of someone wanting to write a book to make money, this was it. 

Hill, when asked about several things which seemed to be 'made-up' or overly embellished in the book, was give a 'that's what writers do' as the answer. 

Yeah, fiction writers! I kept yelling at my computer screen during her testimony and wanting to bang my head on the desk. 

To take a step back, there is a relatively new term in the literary world - Creative Nonfiction. And according to Creativenonfiction.org, this is how the sub-genre of Nonfiction is viewed...

'Writers who write creative nonfiction are very different in voice, orientation and purpose. But what they have in common is that they are, in one way or the other, writing true stories that provide information about a variety of subjects, enriched by relevant thoughtful ideas, personal insight, and intimacies about life and the world we live in.  And this scope and variety is exactly what makes creative nonfiction significant and, these days, so incredibly popular.'

Give me some good creative nonfiction any day. I love to read 'A Year In...' whatever story. My own writing on my memoir/cookbook will be considered creative nonfiction. It will be MY thoughts and memories on events during MY life. Embellished - probably. True? To the best of MY memory of the event - yes. Plagiarized? F*** no! Altered history to make the story more readable? No. 

In my opinion, Becky Hill and her rush to publish had only one goal in mind, not to tell a compelling story. Not to give a true look at the what goes on behind the scenes of a major trial (which would have been infinitely more interesting than what she came up with). However, her rush to get a book out for monetary gain and attention lead to her downfall. She has attention now - but probably not the kind she was hoping for. 

Please, anyone out there who wants to write a book - please, please don't do it for the money. Do it for the story. Do it because you have this story inside you which needs to be told. Yes, it's fine to hope it's successful and you make enough to give up your day job. But do it because you love writing and are compelled to get something on paper. 

Anyway...

If you want to read a really good book on the whole Murdaugh story, read Mandy Matney's book, Blood on Their Hands. (Which I also have a copy of.)