The Elwood Writers will feature on the ‘Back to School’ edition of Cover to Cover for Vision Australia Radio on Friday 26 January 2018. Our group has collaborated with producer and presenter, Tim McQueen, to compile a program comprising poetry, fiction and memoir on multifaceted notions of school. I look forward to sharing my two … Continue reading It’s Back to School for Elwood Writers
Plumbline
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 the torn relationship I had with my veteran father who’d died … Continue reading Plumbline
Making a Scene
‘Keep the drama on the page.' So says Julia Cameron, author of The Artists Way. In other words, make your writing dramatic, not your life. (Well, we can but try.) In my memoir drafts I have a series of themes and anecdotes, but not so much the stuff of drama. By this I mean a … Continue reading Making a Scene
The Power of the Mic
In September 2017 Elwood Writers recorded its Fathers’ Day stories for Vision Radio Australia (VAR). I accompanied Barry Lee Thompson to the studio for his reading of ‘Phase’, a story about a young man whose relationship with his father deepens and evolves as the son explores his sexuality. While Barry read, presenter Tim McQueen was … 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 surely help themselves. Since 2008 I’ve been fortunate 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
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...
WRITINGS AND MUSINGS OF MARGARET MCCAFFREY 