My Story - Memoir and writing from life

My Story 

A 6 week course with www.wordafterword.org.uk

Taking Word After Word’s course, ‘My Story – Memoir and writing from life’ has been my first sortie into this genre, apart from a little travel writing, and it has been both interesting and revealing. I realised early on that I hadn’t read many memoirs or biographies and therefore had a lot to learn. I signed up to the course with the idea of getting started on a new project I was planning, to write about the life of my maternal grandmother Lucy (1898-1982). Fiona, our tutor, had other ideas and I soon found I was writing about myself.

     Initially it felt self-indulgent to repeatedly use the words ‘I’, ‘me’ and ‘my’ but it became easier with practice. It was liberating to be encouraged to do personal, free-writing exercises, where the words just flowed on to a page. Here we were encouraged not to edit or re-read, but to allow the stream of thoughts and memories, arising from suitable prompts, to develop without interruption. These could be private words, not necessarily to be shared, though with an option to do so if we wished. As the small group of students got to know each other we felt braver and more able to share our personal stories and it became therapeutic, even cathartic, to read out our stories in this safe environment. It could almost have been a counselling session (life-writing often being used in the counselling process) and as we wrote about our lives, our insightful tutor supported us with skilful professionalism.

         So what did I learn from the course? What did I gain?

 Th      The course was an opportunity to stay connected with people and the wider world, and I realise that is one of the reasons I write. Although the process of writing can be isolating, writers can through their work connect with others, in writing groups and communities (alongside the many online forums that also exist).

  

    I learned to value the concept of bearing witness, when writers ask readers to support or endorse an experience, so both writer and reader might reach a new level of understanding.

     I learned that truth can have many aspects; the truth (for sure), the truth as we see it (feasible), and the truth we tell others (fiction).

  

    I acknowledged the benefit of using all the senses; to try to ‘show and not tell’; to be true to myself and find my voice; and (as always) to be careful with point of view.

     I hope I will keep by me the list of opening ingredients for a story, be it fiction or memoir:

-a character

-a question

-a clear voice

-a vivid setting

-and an action.

     I will hang on to the good advice Fiona gave us at the end of ‘My Story’ about editing – to get the words down, then rest, leave them and come back refreshed, with some distance and new objectivity.

     I was reminded to try to write something every day if possible and to regularly exercise my writing muscles.

          I feel better prepared to get on with writing about my grandmother’s life, but might approach it slightly differently now. I hope I will be more respectful of whose story I am telling and considerate about how I might mix fact and fiction. It could be an interesting piece of social history, but I will write it primarily for my family to appreciate. They will be my audience and the first to bear witness but who knows where it might go from there.

Philippa Hawley

A Sense of Place

A Sense of Place

– thoughts on travel writing by Philippa Hawley.

I’ve just submitted my first piece of formal travel writing; an article for the online magazine, the Literary Bohemian. Doing this has made me realise that much of my writing over recent years has been travel related. Travel writing overlaps with so many genres; memoir writing, autobiography, blogging, or simply keeping a journal. It can form the basis for a short story or a novel, and in my own case I realise travel has frequently inspired my fictional attempts. My first book, ‘There’s No Sea in Salford’ came out of a desire to write about some time I spent working in Sri Lanka. ‘How They Met Themselves’, my second book, was inspired by a road trip I once made with friends in California.

     Traditional travel writing commonly results in articles for magazines, newspapers or online blogs. It is usually written in the first person, present or past tense. As with all writing description is important and clichés should be avoided. A narrative thread can be helpful, maybe some quotes and references included, but perhaps most importantly any facts have to be researched and checked.

     A different form of travel writing is the autobiographical book. I’m thinking of the success of “A Year in Provence’ by Peter Mayle in 1989 and also ‘A Short Walk in the Hindu Kush’, once described as the greatest travel book of all time in both the Guardian and Telegraph listings. Written by Eric Newby in 1959, this book stimulated travel ideas in many a young person in the 60s and 70s.

     In a similar vein Chris Stewart, the retired drummer of Genesis, published “Driving Over Lemons’ in 1999, an account of his Andalucian adventure. Wivenhoe writer, Jan Ward’s autobiographical book, ‘Travellers Wanted…’ about her journey in 1968 from Sydney to London in a bus, was self-published in 2012 and is well worth a look.

     The transition from autobiography to fiction allows the constraints of travel writing to shift. In ‘A Thousand days in Venice’, it's hard to know if Marlena de Blasi is writing true biography or fiction as she describes an unexpected romance in Venice and adds tasty snippets about food and recipes along the way.

     When travel inspires pure fiction the rules change further. In a short story a sense of place often grounds a piece of writing, giving the reader a greater understanding of a plot or character by showing not telling. In longer pieces or novels, knowing where the story is set can add depth and realism to the writing. But in fiction facts can be modified to suit your story, reality and fantasy can merge and create a new place, or a new way of looking at a known environment.

     Placing your novel in a different part of the world or in a specific city or town, can add interest for a reader, allowing them learn about another country through the eyes of the characters within. It can rekindle their own memories of travel or create a desire to visit and make their own journeys.

     I love reading stories set in places I’ve been to. ‘The Miniaturist’ by Jess Burton reminded me of frequent trips to Amsterdam, ‘Brixton Beach’ by Roma Tearne took me back to my time in Sri Lanka, and ‘Brighton Rock’ by Graham Greene made me think of when my daughter lived in the town, albeit decades later. Other novels I’ve read have taken me across the USA, or into unknown areas of the Middle East. I’ve been transported to Sweden, Africa and New Zealand as well as enjoying more familiar European places through different eyes.

     Reading can help you travel the world and as writers we can encourage our readers to do just that. So next time you write, think about place and setting and maybe add a little travel to your tale.

***

‘There’s No Sea in Salford’

‘How They Met Themselves’

&‘Travellers Wanted…’

 are available at Wivenhoe Bookshop and online.