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?
Tag: Kaylie Jones
The Inciting Incident
What is the inciting incident that sparks your memoir? The question might apply also to fiction writers. It is any turning point in a life that changes something towards the remarkable. For memoirists, says US teacher Kaylie Jones, it's the moment 'the rock came through the window’; the day one's life went ‘careening out of … 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
The Eye watching the ‘I’
Among her 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 observing and informing the stick … Continue reading The Eye watching the ‘I’
WRITINGS AND MUSINGS OF MARGARET MCCAFFREY 