Writing Who You Know

A while back I told my grandparents that I was writing a book, featuring a large dysfunctional family.  They assumed it was autobiographical.  I told them, not really.  Then they read it and this call happened:

^My Paternal Grandparents^

Grandpa: "Hello, Allers?  Is that you?"

Me: "Yes, Gramps.  How are you?"

Grandma: "I'm here, too!  It's Granny! We're both on the line."

Me:  "Awesome.  What's going on?"

Gramps:  "Well, I have some good news and some bad news for you."

Me:  "Yes..."

Gramps:  "We read the first chapters of your book.  Now, I'm not going to sue."

Me:  "That's nice to hear."

Gramps:  "But your grandmother is."

Grandma:  "I guess that Board of Education really got to you, huh?"

Me:  "Uh...yea."

The conversation went on from there, with them guessing who the various cousins in the story were meant to represent in my family.  At first, I tried to deny it.  I had purposefully tried not to make too many connections because I didn't want my family psychoanalyzing my book.  After I thought about it, however, there's quite a bit of merit to their argument.

My family is large and loving but we also give each other a lot of crap.  Many have names that start with the same letter, like the Jennings Family.  My family is much taller than the national average and are generally athletic--three of my cousins have played college volleyball. I am the runt (though I'm even shorter than 5'7") and I did once play in a volleyball game with my cousins and somehow got blamed for us losing, something my Grandpa still razzes me about.  Many others played varsity sports, while others are very intelligent, participating in National Robotics Competitions or crushing their Biology studies.  Some are both (you know, like me).  And my cousin Josh is a Sasquatch, who would definitely throw me in a lake. 

But some of the story only represents partial truths. My grandmother was adopted and does have a paddle called the "Board of Education," but I don't think she's ever used it on anyone.  My grandpa was an only child and is a learned man, but while he is a gifted landscape architect, I don't think he's ever done any home-building.  My cousin Karissa, the "perfect" one, is a lot like Ellie but she's way less aggressive, studying Speech Pathology not War Philosophy.  A couple of us have tried to get Cousin Olympics going, but with my family and one cousin in Georgia and Florida and the rest in California, we haven't had the chance to all get together lately. I'm still holding out hope, even though I, like Persis, would probably place near the bottom.   

^How all twins look to me^

However, there's also so much that isn't true.  While lots of us have done well in school, we've never had a Valedictorian in the family (yet!--pressure's on kiddies!).  We don't have a Sarah--thank goodness! In fact, that's my brother's girlfriend and she's the exact opposite.  I probably gave my character that name to rile her up.  We've never had twins or triplets in the family (unless I ate a sibling or two in utero), which is good because I think they only belong in horror stories.  And so far we're only talking about my Dad's side of the family.  My mom's side is also pretty interesting (though smaller and less obnoxious), and no autobiography would be complete without mentioning my Grandpa Ron or my Grandma Chic.  

In the end, I do want to write what I know because I want my writing to feel as authentic as possible, but I don't want my family harassing me any more than they already do. And I don't want to force myself to kill the author within (a la Roland Barthes), but I do want to step outside my comfort zone, a major aim of this writing project.   I'm not sure how I'll achieve that other than to have my grandparents and some strangers as my beta readers.

So thanks, Grandma and Grandpa, for providing source material AND for making me over-think the writing process more than I already am.  And fair warning to my family and friends--cross me and you might just live forever in my literature--as an evil twin.