Writing Journal #8

Writing an imaginary piece about a real historical event has some strong problems. First, you have to know enough about the event to be able to portray the events realistically. It also makes it hard having the event be a recent one because people can actually remember the event and will know that you don’t know what you are talking about if you don’t. I have read historical fiction books before, but most of them were not about any events more current that 1912, and I don’t remember any of the author’s names. I think that books that are called autobiographical contain a lot of useful information about both current events and the cultural impacts of the events and the way that people react to such events. I think that all such depictions are merely descriptions of what people remember and must be read that way, but they are usually written fairly close to the events (in a historical perspective, within thirty years is very contemporary) and therefore they often have the best and most accurate information that we can find. Modern autobiographies can be seen in the same way, you see a side of what happened in a particular situation. You have to remember that there may be more sides to the situation because everyone remembers what makes them out to be the most involved and which puts them in the best light, so the more accounts of an event you read the better picture of it you will have if you are looking for a historical account. The writings on the walls were moving and it was interesting to be able to see the words of someone who had undergone awful things recorded on the walls. I chose to write about the event I did because I tried to write about three other events and couldn’t.