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Group christie tate5/29/2023 Still, she adds, “I’ve talked to so many writers who are like ‘I can’t do this kind of writing - I can’t write what I want to write until my parents die.’ I understand, I couldn’t do this if (the members of the group) didn’t have veto power. “I made a lot of mistakes,” she says now, “and I got lucky.” Tate had, as she explained it herself, “promised away my right to tell my own story.” Before publication, when she attended writing conferences and workshops and told teachers about this deal, they mostly flinched. (Tate agreed.) It could have been worse - the group could have decided they didn’t want to be written about after all, and likely, Tate might have pulled the book entirely. “So other members of the group confronted me: ‘She gets a pass and I have to be in your book?’ Which is fair.” In the end, none asked her to change a thing - only the wife of a member, who had access to a draft and requested two details come out. One group member asked not to be included at all in Tate’s book - disguised or otherwise - and Tate agreed. Which cuts to the foundational heart of a memoir: Anything in those drafts they didn’t want in, she took out. Still, again, you have to wonder: How do you write so freely about the people with whom you share your ugliest self - and who share their lowest points with you - when you still have those relationships and see each other all the time? Tate’s answer was unusual for a memoir writer: Soon after starting “Group” in 2015, she allowed everyone in her group - including her therapist - to read drafts and request changes.
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