The interconnection between change and place became more apparent to me once I'd finalised my piece for Tim McQueen’s program on Vision Australia Radio (VAR). In preparing with Elwood Writers for Cover to Cover, I better understood that change happens all the time – no matter our resistance – but that it always occurs in place, … Continue reading Stories of Change and Place
Tag: DAUGHTERS
To Workshop or Not
Some people like to workshop their stories in formal classes, others do not. I personally hate it, but I do it anyway. Well, I don't hate it, but find it challenging. I’ve just returned from a writing excursion which took me far from my own country and way out of my comfort zone. At night, … Continue reading To Workshop or Not
What is a Favourite Story – of Yours?
The first of mine that comes to mind is ‘The Turf Club’. I had heard the story of my father drinking at a local pub since I was a girl But I wasn’t present at the event, so I had to rely on my imagination to structure it. I wrote it at Borgo San Fedele … Continue reading What is a Favourite Story – of Yours?
The Intimacy of Memoir
Author Lee Kofman says: ‘Memoirists write directly about what matters to them, whereas fiction writers may sublimate their experiences and passions.’ The first half 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 a moment. Lately … Continue reading The Intimacy of Memoir
Putting the Family in Memoir
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 hurting someone? Upon hearing that I was writing about our WW II … Continue reading Putting the Family in Memoir
The Inciting Incident
What is the inciting incident that sparks a memoir? The question might apply to fiction writers too. It is any turning point in a life. For memoirists, says teacher Kaylie Jones, 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 … Continue reading The Inciting Incident
The Right to Write
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
Finding that 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: “Don’t lose the magic.” Early in his career, George’s fiction … Continue reading Finding that Mentor
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
WRITINGS AND MUSINGS OF MARGARET MCCAFFREY 