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
Tag: Veterans
The Interface between Memoir and Fiction
At the launch of Every Second Tuesday, author Lee Kofman observed that certain of the Elwood Writers stories in the anthology exhibited a ‘fascinating’ interface between memoir and fiction. This reflects, I believe, a growing field of writers who are mixing the two genres. Blending them, however, can be a challenge. Debate rages about where … Continue reading The Interface between Memoir and Fiction
Writing Bad
‘But M, you seem so nice,’ a writing colleague once said to me. ‘How do you come up with this stuff? Where does it come from?’ I shrugged. First of all, I’m not that nice. Secondly, being a writer is different from living life as a human being. The human is there to get along … Continue reading Writing Bad
Plumbline
I was half way through my MA thesis, or so I thought, when the 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 father who’d died in … Continue reading Plumbline
WRITINGS AND MUSINGS OF MARGARET MCCAFFREY 