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WRITINGS AND MUSINGS OF MARGARET MCCAFFREY

WRITINGS AND MUSINGS OF MARGARET MCCAFFREY

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Category: Writing Memoir

The Intimacy of Memoir

May 13, 2022May 14, 2022 ~ Margaret McCaffrey ~ Leave a comment

Author Lee Kofman says: ‘Memoirists write directly about what matters to them, whereas fiction writers may sublimate their experiences and passions.’ The first half of her dictum is certainly true: memoirists are concerned with what matters to them. Whole books are devoted to the second part of Lee's hypothesis. But let’s look at memoir for … Continue reading The Intimacy of Memoir

Writing or Penning?

May 2, 2022 ~ Margaret McCaffrey ~ 3 Comments

Do people ask you how your writing is going? I’m sure we all get asked that. Who knows what the right answer is. One acquaintance of mine enquired further: ‘But are you penning or writing?’ he said. I didn't know the difference. ‘Well,’ he replied, ‘ C. (his partner) tells me she's been writing during … Continue reading Writing or Penning?

Journaling

February 3, 2022February 10, 2022 ~ Margaret McCaffrey ~ 4 Comments

Writing in a journal is not for everyone. But then again, neither is writing. For those of us who do like to write, journaling can be appealing. Of late, I have returned to the practice of free-hand writing in my notebook. It’s been a hopscotch couple of years as the pandemic endures. Maybe because it’s … Continue reading Journaling

Putting the Family in Memoir

January 7, 2022 ~ Margaret McCaffrey ~ 13 Comments

Flannery O’Connor writes, ‘ … anybody who has survived his childhood has enough information about life to last him the rest of his days.’ If you, like me, write about your family – unavoidable in memoir - how do you do that without hurt? One of my brothers, upon hearing that I was writing about … Continue reading Putting the Family in Memoir

Why Writings and Musings?

November 13, 2021November 14, 2021 ~ Margaret McCaffrey ~ 2 Comments

I wrote this post for the Elwood Writers blog in October 2021 - view here. The post is in answer to Helen McDonald's questions to us about why we write our individual blogs, and who our intended audience is. Why I Write my Blog I set up the Writings and Musings blog because I wanted to have … Continue reading Why Writings and Musings?

Slow Writing

October 1, 2021 ~ Margaret McCaffrey ~ 5 Comments

Wiradjuri writer, Tara June Winch, gave this advice to entrants for Australia's SBS Emerging Writers' Competition in which she is a judge:"When you read your story aloud, when you edit and read it again and again, your work becomes the fire pit reflected in your eyes.' To read more about the competition, View here. The … Continue reading Slow Writing

The Inciting Incident

August 27, 2021August 26, 2021 ~ Margaret McCaffrey ~ 4 Comments

What is the inciting incident that sparks a memoir? This question might apply to fiction writers too. It is any turning point in a life. For memoirists, Kaylie Jones says it's the moment 'the rock came through the window’; the day one's life went ‘careening out of control’. The inciting incident is a great place … Continue reading The Inciting Incident

The Right to Write

August 14, 2021 ~ Margaret McCaffrey ~ 2 Comments

In a writing workshop, teacher Kaylie Jones encouraged us to give ourselves permission to write. Busting myths, she said, is what the writer must do. The right to write might be more pertinent to the memoirist than it is to the fiction writer, as for us there is less distance between ourselves and the story. … Continue reading The Right to Write

The Eye watching the ‘I’ 

July 2, 2021 ~ Margaret McCaffrey ~ 3 Comments

Among other skills, US teacher Kaylie Jones runs memoir-writing workshops.  At the first one I attended, she explained that the good memoirist uses the omniscient Eye to watch over the more personal ‘I’ of the narrator. In seconds flat, she was at the whiteboard drawing an eye in the sky that observed and informed the stick … Continue reading The Eye watching the ‘I’ 

Finding that Mentor

June 5, 2021 ~ Margaret McCaffrey ~ Leave a comment

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: “Don’t lose the magic.” Early in his career, George’s fiction … Continue reading Finding that Mentor

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