Can't include it in a memoir? Put it in your fiction!

Advice on writing memoirs often includes the issue of how to deal with uncomfortable or unflattering truths (as you remember them, at least) about living people.

Jennifer Browdy, a professor, author, writing coach, and publisher, has a solution to that conundrum: make it fictional.

That is, if the story or detail about a person is so compelling you feel it deserves telling, save it for a novel and a fictional character.

Browdy explains how using real-life stories can help your fiction and your own healing in a guest post for Jane Friedman's blog.

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