What’s one genuinely ‘it’s-not-what-you-think situation’ you have been in?
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The Danger of a Single Story
I am a writer and I enjoy writing creative (non)fiction pieces from journalistic or news material. As a feminist, I tend to re-write women's stories from popular media and make it more personal to the audience who will read my work. Recently, I gained admission to graduate school for an MFA in creative writing nonfiction and some of the writing samples I submitted for my application was about sexual assault and rape - not my experience but somewhat a rewrite of popular news stories. There was even one awful piece titled father - about a father who raped his daughter and who attended a church where one of the pastors was a rapist too (in light of recent allegations against a prominent church leader in Nigeria).
I didn't notice the repercussion of my stories so soon. But wait for it...
The first school I gained admission to put me in the memoir group of nonfiction without even asking me. When I spoke the director of the second school's program - he began our conversation by expressing gratitude that "I am such a vulnerable writer..." I didn't read meaning to it then because this isn't the first time I'll hear such compliment. It was until I met with a professor from the third school who wanted to tell me more about their program to convince me that it is a great choice. Similarly, she began by admiring my piece dropped the bombshell when she said, "there was such deep vulnerability in writing that story about your father..."
If shook can be shocked, that was me! There were several ravaging thoughts in my head like "What have I done to my father? The nonfiction piece is not what you think!"
I really wish I put a disclaimer on that piece to say that although it is a creative non-fiction, it is not my story.