Fictionalizing Your Past – Debby Dodds

Memoir, Creative Nonfiction, Fiction, Roman a Clef, Autobiographical fiction…so many genres- how do you decide as an author which one makes the best vehicle for your story? We will discuss the pros and cons of these choices and how the line continues to blur in novels. Debby Dodds wrote her first novel- Amish Guys Don’t Call- based on a story from her teenage life and then asked “What If?” and updated it to modern day. Her second novel is also based on a true story but is being fictionalized in a very different way. We will also reference the novels: Educated, We Ride Upon Sticks, Their Eyes Were Watching God and The Things They Carried among others to parse out what devices work the best to make individual stories shine. The author will also discuss how growing up surrounded by the Amish affected her story and how she researched that very closed community for details for the more fictional segments of her story.

Debby Dodds