Memoir, misery lit or clickbait?
That time my story was butchered on a podcast
I submitted one of my stories to a small podcast this spring, and it was accepted, which meant that a volunteer performer would read my story aloud on an upcoming episode.
How exciting! I was grateful for the head pat. Especially when working on big, long-term projects (my novel), it’s nice to have a little encouragement and validation as a writer along the way.
The episode was released a few months later, and I listened eagerly.
I was so very, very disappointed.
I’m sure the podcast producers and actress did their best: their handling of my story, which is about my husband when he was living with terminal cancer, was respectful.
But the actress really got into the role of a grieving widow, shaky voice and all. It’s melodramatic. And she stumbled over some of the words, so it’s clearly not her story. It all sounds staged and artificial.
Ugh.
I couldn’t listen to the whole thing.
I couldn’t share the link around, as I’d planned, because I honestly didn’t want anyone listening to it.
