ABSTRACT
This text deals with the role creative writing can play in the field of life writing. Emphasising both life writing’s general goals and obstacles, the text underlines the ways in which the fictional can add to the already existing discourse by expanding on, rather than discarding, life writing’s modes of narrative and focus on authenticity. Functioning as a reflection piece on the accompanying creative text, consequently using it as an example, it explores creative writing’s own purpose – to tell a story that can be both true and untrue at the same time. Highlighting the incompleteness of a creative text as its biggest asset, the text argues that creative writing fits neatly with life writing’s discourse concerning truthfulness and storytelling. Taking from the works of Sidonie Smith and Julia Watson on life writing’s already unusual place within the humanities and literature, as well as Joan Didion’s personal take on what exactly constitutes a creative work, the text weaves together the telling of a life with the telling of a story. It argues not per se for a comparable narrative between, but rather for an aligning purpose for both.
