Face It: Try Memoir!
Processing ideas and actions through memoirs can be a valuable weapon against escapism, combatting escapism where it begins—the author’s mind. For Christian authors, memoirs are a beneficial genre, delivering truth for the glory of God to readers in a way that is genuine and vulnerable, showing how the author has authentically dealt with relatable situations. Memoirs are a powerful genre, even when they aren’t released to an audience but instead kept for private processing, as memoirs help writers to analyze their beliefs and reactions and understand how characters’ beliefs may realistically develop.
Though memoirs are a helpful processing tool that grounds a writer in reality, no genre can safeguard a writer against escapism. A memoir author with an incorrect focus encourages escapism to grow and the author deceives themselves into believing that there are no consequences, at least no positive consequences, in the circumstances of their own life. Authors who wish to avoid escapism in memoirs must ensure they keep their focus in the correct place—what the Bible says about difficult situations, self, and God.
Understood this way, authors of memoir only have two choices: to process in the light of God’s reality or to fall into blindness for lack of its light. Escapism in memoir looks like escape from God’s sovereignty. Escapism in memoir starts with escape from God’s sovereignty, and leads to one of two forms: self-aggrandizing, “boastful often in disregard of the truth,” (“Self-Aggrandizing”, Merriam Webster) or self-pity.
Self-Aggrandizing in Memoir Writing
Escapism can slip into memoirs when the author ignores God's sovereignty over every challenge or circumstance they face. It can quickly lead to a view of self-idolization, where the author of the memoir views himself as having a redeeming action—of his own power—over the situation. Instead of acknowledging God’s glory, the author focuses wrongly on his own impact on the situation—especially if that impact was, in the eyes of the author, positive. Self-idolization can also occur when authors focus exclusively on the immediate impact of the situation and do not process the long term, not processing why the situation is a major part of their current beliefs and mentalities.
When memoirs focus entirely on the author’s impact on a situation, apart from God’s power in the situation, the author travels a path which promotes self-idolization and works-based salvation. Removing God’s power and redeeming work also removes any need for God, since the author now seems capable of redeeming situations and wrong beliefs on their own. This can become addictive and spiral authors into
Repeatedly ignoring how desperately they need God’s redeeming grace on situations in their lives and, eventually, causes authors to question if they need God at all, leading to a worldview which essentially ignores the statement in Ephesians 2:8-9:
“For by grace you have been saved, through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast”.
Self-idolizing escapism also endangers good narrative because it creates inauthentic cause-and-effect relationships and creates a shallow, one-sided story that lacks moral fiber, engaging conflict, and resolution rewards. The lack of conflict in the story makes memoirs hard to read by removing aspects which engage the reader and making the truth hard to distinguish from the events, characters, and other elements of story that surround it. Actions can reveal the reality of a situation or circumstances, but a lack of conflict due to escapist thinking.
Self-aggrandizing escapism (avoiding vulnerability in defiance of God’s sovereignty) frustrates writers, too. Authors practicing memoir can grow irritated without clarity on what to write. This should be an indicator that the memoir may be escapist and lacking consequence. The key to overcoming this situation is to aim for honest examination of events, beliefs, decisions, actions, and the consequences that flow from them through the principles taught in scripture.
Consider William Ernest Henley’s poem “Invictus.” It seems to speak bold courage, but it exemplifies one of two conclusions that all human memoirs reach if God is not playing the role of sovereign: self-idolization. Henley begins, “Out of the black night that covers me, black as the pit from pole to pole, I thank whatever gods may be for my unconquerable soul.” and concludes, “I am the master of my fate, I am the captain of my soul” (Henley, William Ernest, “Invictus”).
The conclusion rouses the human spirit. But contrast this to King David’s similar line of thought in Psalm 23. “Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for you are with me...” (Psalm 23, ESV). This acknowledgement of God’s presences quickly gives way to hope found only through faith in a higher, good power. David’s attitude of faith and trust in God’s goodness even through hard circumstances, “your rod and your staff, they comfort me,” (Psalm 23, ESV) frees him from the painful struggle Henley depicts with phrases like, “My head is bloody, but unbowed.” (Henley, William Ernest, “Invictus”).
Nowhere do the differences become more distinct than in David’s conclusion, “Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life, and I shall dwell in the house of the Lord forever” (Psalm 23, ESV). Viewed through the lens of Psalm 23, Henley’s moving words speak no comfort. They only reveal imagined bravery of escaping God’s sovereign presence—which David’s wisdom reveals as good. Henley’s trust in self delivers him only to the destruction and ultimate defeat of self-idolatry. Meanwhile, David rests in the goodness and mercy of a higher power that cares for him tenderly. Memoirs, faced boldly through faith in Christ’s sovereignty will reveal where our faith lies.
Self-Pity in Memoir Writing
On good days when our spirits are high, escapism in memoir leads authors to the self-aggrandizing. On hard days—days when our bloody-head-not-bowed droops under the weight of sheer exhaustion and we are faced with the reality that we cannot save ourselves from certain doom—escapism in memoir takes on the form of self-pity and positions the author to accept victimization thinking. When authors are willing to be vulnerable but focus entirely on the situation’s negative impact on themselves, they effectively cut out God’s grace and redemption from the situation and context. This leads to a mindset of victimization as the author completely misses out on seeing how God used the events of their lives to bring them closer to Himself.
Escapism that results in self-pity can be one of the most harmful forms of escapism. Primarily, it promotes a wrong belief of self—it strips the author/main character of power by ignoring the impact of their beliefs and decisions within the situations they face. Sadder still is that self-pity in memoir leads authors to a path of wrong belief about God and His grace.
Self-pitying escapism (vulnerability without consideration of God’s sovereignty), blinds authors to God’s goodness and love and instead places their sight on sin and pain. When authors ignore their love and make victims of themselves, they ignore how God uses situations to grow authors and bring them closer to Him. Instead of focusing on God’s life-giving power over even what is hard, self-pity escapism teaches authors to curse God for causing them to undergo a painful and harmful event.
What if David had fallen into self-pity and focused only on the shadow, the pain of the rod, and the strike of the staff? If David hadn’t recognized God’s guidance through the rod and staff, his words would not lead us through the shadow and into the goodness and mercy of the ultimate reality that awaits those who walk by faith, not by sight (2 Corinthians 5:7).
Escapism in memoirs carries heavy danger to writers, harming both the author’s beliefs, processing, and writing skills, and develops an unhealthy focus on self. In escapist memoirs, authors are led to look at themselves more than they look at Christ and to view themselves either without fault or without purpose. The deadliest impact of escapism is that it hides the Tuth from authors and harms their ideas about self and God. Escapism in memoirs leads the author to place focus entirely on themselves in a state of either self-glorification or self-victimization. However, no matter what type of unhealthy focus the authors take, the greatest danger of escapist memoirs is that authors are led to believe they have no need for God’s guidance, grace, and love in their lives, either because they do not need God or because they falsely believe that God is not loving. Sadder still, this impact also spreads to the readers who accept such narratives.
Escapism in memoirs takes authors’ sights from the gospel and places their attention on themselves, which quickly grows into an unhealthy situation as they forget to look toward God. Instead, authors who write escapist memoirs view the world through a lens of the world’s harm, adding in imagined or attempted harm to themselves even though the author may not have truly been harmed by the situation. Escapism in memoirs also prevents writers from being able to handle future challenges in their life by teaching them to process incorrectly. Specifically, when memoirs are used as a processing tool, escapism prevents authors from correctly processing situations they come against, specifically challenging situations, since it keeps them from processing situations they have already faced.
What Use Are Memoirs?
Failure to process how beliefs lead to situations or action defeats the processing benefits memoirs offer. Instead of allowing authors to contemplate their beliefs and reactions in comparison with what is unshakeable—God's word—escapism in memoir only results in a fleeting, veiled appearance of escape. Authors miss out on the powerful processing that David models so vulnerably throughout the Psalms, processing that transforms the writer and reader by rooting identity firmly in Christ.
Memoirs have incredible benefits for authors brave enough to write them unto Christ. Memoirs help the author evaluate his thoughts and actions and realize the wrong areas in his own beliefs so they can be corrected. Since memoirs allow authors to process exactly how they reacted to a certain event in their lives, memoirs can help authors understand their reactions to situations and ideas. Processing the responses they give allows authors to determine which of their reactions, both outward and inward, are not in accordance with the Bible. This also helps them determine areas of weakness where their foundation is not on the Bible but is rather on something else, allowing them to be attacked by the world.
Another benefit of memoirs is the ability to help authors process what Biblical beliefs look like in action. Taking how they responded can help authors recognize where their responses were correct, or where their responses grew to be closer to the Biblical responses, and this allows authors to determine what Biblical beliefs look like as compared to where they came from.
For those who intend to write memoirs to earn a living, memoirs provide a wonderful platform where authors can portray truth to their readers, since they themselves have faced these situations and don’t need to rely on second-hand accounts to write something they have not experienced. Memoirs provide an understandable form of the author’s processing on an event and allow readers to see their reflective thoughts and their thoughts in the moment. This helps readers understand that they are not alone in their challenges and relate to similar thoughts and processes they may have had. Writing through a lens which has processed the right and wrong reactions to a situation leads readers gently to the truth by showing them what is right and wrong in a specific situation without placing them on a pedestal that no one else understands. Memoirs can allow readers to think back to a similar moment in their lives and apply the author’s demonstration to that moment, seeing the consequences of their actions as well as seeing what the correct reaction would be.
Since not all authors are interested in writing memoirs as a living, they may not see much use in writing memoirs. However, memoirs have many of the same benefits for those who do not wish to write professionally in the genre. Memoirs allow for personal processing of beliefs and application to future actions, allowing authors to prepare for situations they may face in the future. Processing through memoirs allows authors to find their areas of weakness and prepare better when those areas are challenged in the future. However, memoirs also have great benefit for writing realistic scenarios and realistic growth arcs for characters’ beliefs. Memoirs allow writers to process the development of their beliefs in relation to impacting events in their lives.
This helps authors write characters by showing the author how characters’ beliefs would realistically develop through similar, although not identical situations, as well as helping authors find the way people’s thought processes and personalities impact belief growth. When writers can process exactly why or why not their beliefs changed during an event, they can determine why or why not characters’ beliefs would change when they are met with challenges. Memoirs also help their authors understand exactly why they themselves reacted as they did, which can help them understand how someone with a different personality might react by showing them which pieces of their personality would change the reaction if placed in a similar situation.
“Ponder the paths of your feet; then all your ways will be sure.” (Proverbs 4:26, ESV)
Whether the author wants to write memoirs for a living or not, memoirs help authors reflect on the paths their feet have taken and process mistakes in action or belief they may have fallen prey to. With this understanding, memoirs help authors prepare their thoughts and make up their mind on which actions to choose in similar difficult situations of their lives, preparing the authors to approach future situations with confidence and stay firm in God’s truth.
How to Write Memoirs that Avoid Escapism
The most important step to avoiding escapism in memoirs is the same as avoiding escapism in other places—focus on the truth and focus on the Gospel. In memoirs, it is crucial to avoid a focus on self and negative consequences.
“Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things.” (Philippians 4:8, ESV)
Memoirs should seek to process through a lens of the Bible, focusing on what is good and true, rather than focusing solely on self and on the negative. Authors of memoirs must acknowledge that, although there are—perhaps even in the author’s own life—negative beliefs and actions, those actions and beliefs should not be focused on and certainly should never be admired. Staying away from a focus on self and the unbeneficial negative also keeps writers away from the debatably easiest time escapism creeps into memoirs—self-victimization. Writers seeking to write memoirs well must ensure they do not focus on themselves and how they are harmed, since that will lead to self-victimization and defeat the benefits of processing. Instead, writers must focus on why they were affected as they were and how God used the event they write on to bring them closer to Himself. Writers must also utilize memoirs to see which of their beliefs are developed against the Bible’s truth so that they can correct them rather than continue in their sinful path.
Pulling Memoirs Together
Memoirs are valuable for Christians to process and determine which of their beliefs are not in line with God’s Word. Understanding wrong beliefs helps Christian writers correct their beliefs and turn toward God, seeking the Bible’s truth to correct the wrong ideas and beliefs they may have had. Christian writers can also find value in memoirs as memoirs help them grow into better authors, teaching them how to write correct and realistic views as well as helping them process how to present truth to their readers. Memoirs, which help writers find out what good and bad beliefs look like in challenging situations, help authors deliver true beliefs to their readers in ways which help the readers understand they are not alone in their struggle, nor feel pushed away by unrealistic situations and character growth they cannot relate to. Memoirs also helps Christian authors plan how to develop their characters’ growth of beliefs to highlight the truth in their fiction writing, guiding their readers to God’s truth through the story’s belief growth.
“Keep your heart with all vigilance, for from it flow the springs of life.” (Proverbs 4:23, ESV)
More important than any benefit to growth in writing, memoirs help authors recognize, found, and reform their own beliefs through helping them see where they have been. Memoirs help writers analyze how challenging events reveal their heart, their sin, or their foundation on God’s Word. Once writers see the actions stemming from their beliefs, they can pinpoint what their ideas are and correct them if they are wrong. Memoirs help Christian writers analyze their beliefs so they can keep their hearts and protect the springs of life Proverbs directs them to.
