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, ‘ Ch.(his partner) tells me she's been writing during the … Continue reading Writing or Penning?
Tag: memoir
The Power of Journaling
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 The Power of Journaling
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
Why Writings and Musings?
I wrote this post for the Elwood Writers blog in October 2021 - view here. The post is in answer to Helen McDonald's questions 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 an online … Continue reading Why Writings and Musings?
Slow Writing
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
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, teacher 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 … 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 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
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
Reading for Writers
Before I began writing myself, I read novels primarily for the story. In fact, I revelled in the tale. Even after dissecting themes for my studies in ‘great’ literature, I still craved a good story. Later, while studying creative writing, I heard another student declare that she only reads these days to see how the … Continue reading Reading for Writers
WRITINGS AND MUSINGS OF MARGARET MCCAFFREY 