According to the latest Writer's Digest (March 2006), autobiographical
fiction is a genre in which the author uses her/his own memoir as the basis
for a novel. Reasons are to protect the innocent, to write beyond the memoir
timewise--obviously your autobiography can't go past today--or to add
incidents, characters, etc. that were not part of the original. Laura
Ingalls Wilder's books come to mind when I think of autobiographical
fiction.
Kristen Lobe, author of the article, "Truth or Dare", said that Elizabeth
Beier (executive editor at St. Martin's Press) suggested that fiction based
on memoir or autobiography moved the book along faster because characters
could be removed, the story could be set in the present, more showing and
less telling could be accomplished, and conflict can be added and resolved
that may not have happened in the autobiography.
In my opinion, this is not a new genre. I think a previous respondent was
correct in naming two recent "fictional true stories". Writers who can't
sell memoirs are mining them for content for their next novel, but that's
not new either.
Pat Miller
Sue Creech Elementary
Katy ISD
Author of Stretchy Library Lessons and Collaborative Bridges series
www.patmillerbooks.com
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