Skip to content
WRITINGS AND MUSINGS OF MARGARET MCCAFFREY

WRITINGS AND MUSINGS OF MARGARET MCCAFFREY

  • Writing Memoir
  • Reviews
  • About
  • News and Updates
  • Contact

Tag: DAUGHTERS

What is a Favourite Story – of Yours?

June 22, 2022 ~ Margaret McCaffrey ~ 2 Comments

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

May 13, 2022May 14, 2022 ~ Margaret McCaffrey ~ 2 Comments

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

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

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

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

Plumbline

December 7, 2017December 7, 2017 ~ Margaret McCaffrey ~ 2 Comments

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

Making a Scene

November 3, 2017November 3, 2017 ~ Margaret McCaffrey ~ Leave a comment

‘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

Finding your Writing Voice

June 28, 2017October 13, 2017 ~ Margaret McCaffrey ~ Leave a comment

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

Follow WRITINGS AND MUSINGS OF MARGARET MCCAFFREY on WordPress.com

Previous Posts

  • June 2022 (1)
  • May 2022 (2)
  • February 2022 (1)
  • January 2022 (1)
  • December 2021 (1)
  • November 2021 (1)
  • October 2021 (1)
  • September 2021 (1)
  • August 2021 (2)
  • July 2021 (1)
  • June 2021 (2)
  • April 2021 (1)
  • March 2021 (1)
  • February 2021 (1)
  • January 2021 (1)
  • November 2020 (2)
  • October 2020 (3)
  • September 2020 (1)
  • August 2020 (2)
  • July 2020 (2)
  • June 2020 (1)
  • December 2019 (1)
  • March 2018 (1)
  • January 2018 (1)
  • December 2017 (1)
  • November 2017 (1)
  • October 2017 (3)
  • August 2017 (1)
  • July 2017 (1)
  • June 2017 (1)
  • May 2017 (1)
  • May 2016 (1)
  • April 2016 (1)
Website Powered by WordPress.com.
  • Follow Following
    • WRITINGS AND MUSINGS OF MARGARET MCCAFFREY
    • Already have a WordPress.com account? Log in now.
    • WRITINGS AND MUSINGS OF MARGARET MCCAFFREY
    • Customize
    • Follow Following
    • Sign up
    • Log in
    • Report this content
    • View site in Reader
    • Manage subscriptions
    • Collapse this bar