You are Interesting
Wednesday, December 5, 2012 @ 3:20 PM
When strolling through art galleries or browsing bookshops we tend to see only famous people. Of course years ago it was only the titled and the rich who could afford to leave evidence of their passing. Lord Horatio Nelson and the Viceroy and General Governor of India would give much to be able to write about their lives as we can ours. Our experiences, feelings, relationships; the period we serve our lifespan in. As they had others write their biographies their memoirs are the opinions of others. Marilyn Monroe would seethe at one biographer’s account of her career, glow from another’s yet there might be a strong element of truth in both. No one can write about their life better than the person whose life it belongs to; you.
I know what you are going to say; their lives are more interesting than mine: Rubbish! I recently turned down an all expenses paid trip to Thailand; I was promised a villa of my own to stay in. I declined because the gentleman who wished me to write his biography had been a high-living international socialite and casino owner. How on earth do you enliven a boring account of casual friendships and relationships with the rich and famous? I know my limits.
On the other hand I have been enthralled when re-writing the experiences of people you might describe as ordinary. There was the mother whose husband took an unnatural fancy to his step-niece and later a neighbor’s child. She had to keep moving to stay one step ahead of Social Services in case they took their kids into care. Then there was the Dubliner who, as a young boy was sentenced to over 4 years in an ‘industrial school’ in Connemara for a minor act of vandalism. The beatings, cruelties and sexual depravities by the ‘school’s’ priesthood defy belief.
An extraordinary ordinary person was Betty Musole, born into a thatched hut boma (village) in Central Africa; her story of escape from the depths of deprivation would keep your bedside lamp burning. So would Chris Nand’s epic odyssey that brought him from a South Sea Island village to meet the Beatles and to later live the good life in the Sol.
There are more of course; the point I am making is that ordinary people writing about their lives makes them far more interesting than the boring rich born with a silver spoon in their mouth. We can identify with people like us; not viceroys or film stars. Even if your life has been less exciting it can be enlivened by family and relationship dramas. It is nonsense to say tedium doesn’t sell. Real life, even on a basic level, grabs readers’ attention and often the interest of TV producers. As a ghost-writer I can turn a small drama into a cliffhanger. Try me. Other ordinary people did and they are now successful authors.