Writing in the Age of Unreality
How our personal stories can reclaim truth in the Trump era.
During a recent Zoom call with one of my memoir clients — a vivacious man in his early 80s — he offered a tender, deeply vulnerable sentiment. It was less a question and more an earnest plea.
“I’ve been thinking a lot about the passages I’ve already written," he said of his working manuscript, “but since Trump’s election, the world’s completely different. Why would anyone — especially someone young — want to read what someone like me has to say?”
He didn’t have to explain that the world he’s known has been nothing like the world we inhabit now.
“What,” he asked, “would a young person possibly gain from reading about my life?"
Since we first began working together, I’ve been honored to learn about his fascinating life story — and all its messages of hope and inspiration. Every other week, he sends a new passage for me to read and edit. I send back my comments, and then we meet virtually to discuss how his latest pages might fit into the larger structure of his memoir-in-progress.
During our calls, we often touch on our shared appreciation for the many wonders, absurdities, and complexities that make up the human experience. I consider each of these exchanges sacred.
I always look forward to our time together — a wonderful blend of rolling up our sleeves and giggling until we’re wiping our eyes. Working with him is a gift, and I’m honored to help him shape his writing into a meaningful book.
But during our recent call, after hearing his concerns that his life story may not matter anymore, I stopped and looked into his eyes. In that moment, I saw one very strong, very resourced man deeply shaken by the cruelty, selfishness, and insensitivity of another.
How to respond?
All I could do was try. I took a deep breath, and then I said,
“The world HAS shifted drastically, but your story hasn’t — and neither have you.”
I explained that, when we first began working together, he was a memoirist; now, I said, he’s far more than that. He’s a memoirist AND a vital documentarian of life before the age of unreality.
His book, I explained, will share the nuances of a life lived long before the Trump Administration, long before a cult took control of our government, long before authoritarianism in the U.S. was openly practiced and celebrated.
“Your story matters even more than it did before Trump took office,” I continued without blinking. “You’re preserving what it was like in the times BEFORE we lost reality.”
With that, he nodded.
He understood the assignment.
I didn’t have to tell him that someone, somewhere will always be looking for a roadmap, trying to understand how we got here, wondering what we lost along the way, searching for how to hold onto the things that matter. I didn’t have to remind him that each one of our lives and perspectives and voices make up that map. I didn’t have to say:
If you don’t share your story, the direction signs might disappear forever.
This isn’t the first client I’ve had — or the first writer I’ve known — to feel this way.
Every writer, every generation, questions its relevance. But stories—especially honest, deeply personal ones—are what connect us across time. They remind us that, no matter how much the world changes, the core decency of human nature doesn’t.
What’s happening now is not reality. It’s a distortion designed to keep people afraid, divided, and distracted.
What’s happening now is not reality. It’s propaganda masquerading as patriotism.
What’s happening now is not reality. It’s a manufactured illusion built on fear, disinformation, and blind allegiance.
What’s happening now is not reality. It’s a performance of power, where truth is the casualty.
What’s happening now is not reality. It’s an unraveling—a slow, deliberate erosion of facts, accountability, and democracy itself.
What’s happening now is not reality. It’s the loudest voices drowning out the wisest ones.
What’s happening now is not reality. It’s a cult of personality overpowering reason and decency.
What’s happening now is not reality. It’s a rewriting of history in real time, and if we don’t tell our stories, the false version will win.
What’s happening now is not reality. It’s the normalization of chaos, a deliberate strategy to keep us exhausted and compliant.
What’s happening now is not reality. It’s the biggest gaslighting campaign in modern history.
And so, how the hell can we NOT feel shaken?
If you’re doubting whether you have it in you to put your story into the world, thank you. If you’re unsure if you have what it takes and need to check in with someone for confirmation, thank you. If you need to pause, take a deep breath, and ask for help, thank you. If you’re feeling scared or off-kilter and feel a desperate ache for perspective, thank you. If you feel the need to open up, dump, vent, confess, or even express defeat, thank you. If you’re overwhelmed, exhausted, or at your wit’s end, thank you.
Thank you for being a living, breathing, authentic human being.
Thank you for choosing to open up instead of hiding behind veneers.
Thank you for being brave enough to step toward temporary feelings of exposure and discomfort, rather than shoving them down and pretending you’re on top of the world.
Since the election, I’ve sensed an amazing rallying cry brewing in the hearts of creatives and highly sensitive people desperately wanting to DO SOMETHING about the overthrow of our government. It’s a rallying cry that beckons unity as the antidote to our splintering.
But I also sense an unspoken, self-driven pressure to “do it right."
Trust me, you will do it right.
Because, remember:
“Doing it right” doesn’t mean making everything perfect or having the biggest social media platform or even landing on some bestseller list. “Doing it right” means telling the truth.
It means showing up—even when you’re scared.
It means questioning your own relevance, then writing anyway.
It means offering your story as a gift, even when you’re unsure if anyone will receive it.
Trump preaches dominance, certainty, and spectacle. But real power—the kind that lasts—comes from honesty and connection, and guess where those both start? With vulnerability.
If Trump has given the world anything, it’s a model of what not to aspire to.
And so…
…instead of clinging to bravado, let’s embrace bravery.
…instead of blind loyalty, let’s choose truth.
…instead of “Make America Great Again,” let’s commit to something far more radical: let’s Bring Reality Back.
That begins with telling our stories of life in the “before:”
Before Trump hijacked truth.
Before the United States normalized corruption.
Before we lost sight of decency.
Before Trump made cruelty a virtue.
Before the United States embraced authoritarianism.
Before we stopped listening to each other.
Before Trump weaponized division.
Before our country forgot its ideals.
Before we traded facts for feelings.
Before Trump made dishonesty a brand.
Before the U.S. put power over principle.
Before we lost faith in our institutions.
Before we entered this constitutional crisis.
Before our president glorified ignorance.
Before the United States abandoned accountability.
Before we feared telling the truth.
Before Trump made deceit a strategy.
Before the United States became unrecognizable.
Before the United States teetered on the edge.
Before we forgot how to be human.
My friend, if you’re doubting, wondering, second-guessing, or searching for your place in this moment, take heart. You’re already “doing it right.”
Keep going. The world needs you and your stories.
YOUR TURN
Are you a creator? A highly sensitive person? What doubts are you wrestling with? What have you been trying to create? What’s the reality you know to be true? In what ways do you (or might you) use your honesty and vulnerability to share your reality with others?
Christine Wolf is a developmental editor, memoir coach, and founder of Writers’ Haven — a writers’ co-working space featured in Condé Nast Traveler. A scholar of expressive writing and personal narrative, Wolf specializes in the intersection of storytelling, identity, and healing. She’s a writing instructor at Northwestern University’s Norris Center, and she runs Write to Heal Workshops and Retreats. A former board member of the Chicago chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists and a former freelance columnist with the Chicago Sun-Times and Chicago Tribune, she’s the co-author (with Jay Pridmore) of Politics, Partnerships, & Power: The Lives of Ralph E. and Marguerite Stitt Church — a biography about one of the first 50 women elected to the U.S. Congress. Wolf’s writing has been awarded for excellence by the Chicago Tribune, the National Society of Newspaper Columnists, and The Moth. Get in touch at www.christinewolf.com/contact
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Thank you Christine.
This is exactly why I subscribed - why do I need to write my memoir, and why do I need to do it now?