Mary Gallagher

“As a man you know who is right and who is wrong. You have to make decisions and enforce them. As a writer you should not judge. You should understand.” 

-Ernest Hemingway

 

I was five or six or seven or eight, sitting in the car seat behind my mom and watching her face when I realized that there was a whole entire person in there. What was she thinking about? How could I ever know?

 

To be honest, the revelation that strangers around me are just as 

complex and enormous inside as I am is something I struggle to comprehend today, even after twenty years of trying.  That’s what drew me in to writing: writing a good character is like having a baby with the entire world. I take a bit from myself and a bit from everyone around and I shake it all together and make a person (that’s how babymaking works, right?). Responsible writing breeds empathy because it’s possible see how within each character, no matter how we may dislike them, there is some trait that we recognize as our own.

 

On the other hand, I’ve found it impossible to abide by Hemingway’s advice when dealing with nonfiction topics. When an individual’s actions or a government policy affects actual real world people, not just characters I’ve created, it becomes not enough just to understand. At some point, I have to offer judgment on complex issues in my writing, exactly what Hemingway warned against.

 

Still, I can take his words to heart in other ways. As I begin to work in political advocacy, I’ve already learned not to take any organization’s opinion as gospel, no matter how well-intentioned they may be. I thoroughly research every issue I write on, and I do my best to understand the motives and intentions of every side. In real life as in fiction, it’s rare to find a true “bad guy.” Still, when I find one, I ignore what Ernest told me and I pass some goddamn judgment.