Gerard, Chapter 4, "The Art of the Interview"

I guess this is an important chapter seeing as we're about to actually start on (some of my peers may have already taken the initial steps--ghasp!) our immersion projects and interviewing people is an important part of that. Okay, so here's my quote:

To "fashion a piece of artistic truth, a true story [,]...requires sound judgement and the craft to capture truth in the exact words of another person--exact, but not entire and not verbatim. Not the whole truth, but at least nothing but the truth." (75)

Using the words of someone you've talked to is a lot different than using direct literary quotations in an academic paper. All of a sudden, the focus is away from some non-feeling text and on a living, breathing person. A person who may or may not read your work. That's pretty scary if you ask me. Just from my experience of writing about my family, I've been terrified that my mom or dad would get ahold of my essay and get their feelings hurt. Not always, of course, but sometimes. When I'm getting deeper than just talking about how my cast smelled when I went to Jeckyll Island in the fifth grade. So I can only imagine how stressful it can be to incorporate the words of someone who doesn't already love you into your writing...although, now that I'm thinking about it: it might just be easier. I'm not sure; I'll let you know later. Either way, I think Gerard's words are important ones to keep in mind--as the writers, we're responsible for the way we make people look and it's necessary to tell the truth, to be kind and honest.