I just finished reading “Big Magic” by Elizabeth Gilbert, the author of the wildly successful “Eat Pray Love.” To be honest, it was a bit of a slog. Maybe I had sky-high expectations, but I found it hard to stay engaged.
Gilbert’s musings on creativity and being open to “Big Magic” didn’t quite resonate with me. Perhaps it’s because I’m not a “career” writer; I came to this game a bit later in life. She writes, “Most of the time all I was doing was imitating my favorite authors… But that’s what you have to do at the beginning: everybody imitates before they can innovate.” I’ve never felt like I imitated anyone’s writing. I wouldn’t even know where to start!
Gilbert also talks about how many “creatives” are addicted to suffering. She quotes Norman Mailer, who said, “Every one of my books has killed me a little more.” Gilbert disagrees with this, but it got me thinking—why have I never felt this way?
Maybe that’s where fiction and creative nonfiction writers diverge. As family history writers, we have to stick to the facts. We can’t just invent new characters or events, which means less stress about whether a storyline is believable. Our “why” is different, too. We preserve the legacies of our ancestors. Maybe that’s why we don’t feel like our work is killing us—because we’re keeping others alive.
I didn’t suffer while writing Nothing Really Bad Will Happen. In fact, I think it’s the most important thing I’ll ever produce (besides my family, of course). I like to think Elizabeth Gilbert would appreciate that I believe my work has merit, even if I wasn’t starving in a garret. The characters in my story suffered enough for all of us, actually!
I enjoyed the book’s ending more. Gilbert says, “…curiosity is the truth and the way of creative living. Curiosity is the alpha and the omega, the beginning and the end.” It’s curiosity that brought me to family history and curiosity that keeps me going when things get tricky. It’s what makes a reader buy the book and turn the pages.
Curiosity is also what’s propelling me to rewrite Opulent in Aliases, the story of my husband’s great-grandmother, Catherine C. Fitzallen, using my improved writing skills. Can I do it? Can I write another book? Curious? Stick around. We’ll find out together!
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