I was half way through my MA thesis, or so I thought, when my teacher asked: “Margaret, what is your plumbline?” I had no idea - a) what my plumbline was, or b) what a plumbline was. I knew I wanted to write about my torn relationship with my veteran father who’d died in 1976. … Continue reading Plumbline
Author: mmmccaffrey
Margaret holds an MA in Creative Writing from Wilkes University, USA. Her thesis is about the relationship she had with her father, a POW in Germany and veteran of
World War II.
The Good Mentor
It’s said that writing can’t be taught. But why not? Tobias Wolff taught George Saunders at Syracuse University, and look where that got George. All the way to the Man Booker Prize for Fiction in 2017. Saunders speaks admiringly of Tobias, who once warned him not to lose “the magic.” Early in his career, George’s … Continue reading The Good Mentor
Making a Scene
‘Keep the drama on the page,’ says Julia Cameron, author of The Artists Way. She means make your work dramatic, not your life. In drafts of my writing I see I have a series of themes and anecdotes, but not so much the stuff of drama. Take a recent story about my working on Dad’s … Continue reading Making a Scene
The Power of the Mic
In September Elwood Writers recorded our Fathers’ Day stories for Vision Radio Australia (VAR). I accompanied Barry to the studio for his reading of ‘Phase’, a story about a young man whose relationship with his father deepens and evolves as he explores his sexuality. While Barry read, presenter, Tim McQueen, edited on the other side … Continue reading The Power of the Mic
The Writing Group
It is said that you can’t teach writing. Maybe not. But writers, I believe, can sure help themselves. Since 2008 I’ve been lucky enough to be a member of Elwood Writers (EW), a group that meets fortnightly in Melbourne’s inner city. I read on one member’s blog that our group is one of the most … Continue reading The Writing Group
Showing Ten Good Stories
Memoirist Nick Flynn writes: “A memoir is not simply stringing together the five or ten good stories you’ve been telling about your wacky childhood for your whole life, … you need to ask yourself why you’ve been telling those particular stories, and not the millions of others you could tell.” That, says Flynn, is the … Continue reading Showing Ten Good Stories
Fathers Day
Elwood Writers are going to be on the radio again! This time it’s for Fathers Day 2017. My group, Jenny, Barry, Helen and myself will be shining a light onto many facets of fatherhood through a selection of our literary work, including pieces of poetry, fiction and memoir. Our stories will be broadcast on the Cover To Cover program, Vision Australia Radio on … Continue reading Fathers Day
Jewels of San Fedele
Margaret is pleased to be a contributor to the anthology ‘Jewels of San Fedele’, which comprises the work of 14 women who attended a writing retreat in Italy, 2016. The ‘experiential’ classes were designed to have students deepen their work. Margaret’s two stories are excerpts from a memoir in progress.
‘Jewels of San Fedele’ is edited by D Ferrara and Patricia Florio, and is available from Amazon at the following link:
Finding your Writing Voice
Miles Davis once said: “You have to play a long time to be able to play like yourself.” For me this is true in writing. It has taken me a long time to write like myself. In other words, to find my voice. But once small glimmers of it appear, an exciting voyage begins. Writer Lee Kofman … Continue reading Finding your Writing Voice
Putting the ‘me’ in memoir
My memoir teacher once asked me why I didn’t write about myself. Put more of myself into the memoir. “You know,” she said. “Use the “I” word.” Who me? I thought. Put the ‘me’ in memoir? Is the Pope Catholic? Did Tom Ford turn Gucci around? I had been writing around the topic of my father, a World War II veteran, for a number of years...
