42. Back to the Wall – Divinyls 1988

 

You've got the upper hand
But I've got nothing to lose
When I'm trapped in a corner like this
I might light a fuse

 

I have faith in the strength of female relationships. But, seriously, sometimes I wonder why.

            I’ve written and published a NOVEL. As a NOVEL it is, obviously, a work of fiction. Sure, it is based in truth (lesson one of novel writing is write what you know), but it is still a NOVEL. There is even a disclaimer in the front matter that states it is a work of fiction.

            So, when a female relative started attacking me over a tiny part of the novel because she thought I was making things up about an event I knew nothing about, I realised that she knew there was an element of truth in my novel. So, I pointed her to the disclaimer in the front matter, giving her the opportunity to accept that I was not presenting the story as fact. She continued to attack and demand that I write pure fiction or pure fact - presumably as long as there’s nothing for her to be embarrassed by in amongst the facts.

            Funny thing is, as the barrage of angry texts continued to fly, I realised that she’d outed a second relative as having made inappropriate advances on others that they were in a position of trust with. I was not aware of this before the texting barrage. Therefore, she was definitely causing more of a family scandal by attacking me about a situation I’d not known about.

            Remember lesson one of novel writing is write what you know.

At no point did she ask me if there was an element of my own truth in the one scene she was upset about. Instead, Oh my God! A Woman! preferred to blame me for something she choose to take as fact, despite the frontmatter disclaimer, rather than ask ‘Is there any truth in this scene?’. Beyond that, at no point did she explain what she thought was my misinterpretation of the facts, presumably hanging the others that had been subjected to unwanted advances from the second relative out to dry.

In short, she would rather sacrifice the females that had been subjected to these unwanted advances, females she is related to, shove her head in the sand ostrich style, and attack the victims rather than deal with the truth. Personally, I felt like I was being victim shamed by a second order (second-rate?) relative.

I wish I had of lit a fuse on this situation earlier.

 

P.S.: Sorry, but you’re going to have to read my novel Forget Me Knot if you want to delve into the details.

 

www.youtube.com/watch?v=57JFkKMyvps&list=RD57JFkKMyvps&start_radio=1