Storytime

Last week I ventured to another library and ran a memoir writing workshop for Seniors Week. It was a lot of fun (and boy was I nervous!) and I'm glad to say not only was there a good turn out but I received some very good comments. In fact one lovely bunch of women would love me to come back each week and help them step by step through their writing. I did make them write and the majority were more than eager to share their work. It was so interesting to discover that while most people know exactly  what they 'want' to write about, when it is said out loud it does sometime lose it's glamour. It becomes a bit humdrum. What we discovered during these two hours was the glory of the aside. People would say 'I''m writing a story about this time when this happened and this happened and I remember vividly this happening". All nice, all great social commentary...but then they would say something like 'and that's when she got the gun out and trie...

I've been thinking a lot lately about my writing...in particular my India travel piece. Of course that is what I hoped would happen after attending the travel writing master class with Claire Scobie....which is all good. Although one comment she made relates to making your book not merely a travel diary. So no- It's Tuesday morning, hot, bit breezy and today I travelled from A to B...there was a slight hiccup at C due to the train being late but it was quite a nice journey. She does suggest using physical descriptions of the people you meet on your way. Now I don't tend to describe my characters. There may be an allusion to an age or ethnicity...sometimes a mention of hair colour but Claire wants more. Bring these characters to life so the reader can meet them as well as go on the journey with you. I do so admire Raymond Chandler for his descriptions.... 'From 30 feet away she looked like a lot of class. From 10 feet away she looked like something mad...

Every now and then I feel the need for a workshop. It's just the kick up the pants to get me inspired again when I'm feeling jaded...pushes me to move forward. On Saturday I went to the Moving on masterclass with Clarie Scobie in lovely, and actually sunny and warm, Ballarat. (big thanks to other half who managed to coincide visiting friends and his bees with this particular day and was a willing chauffeur) I really got a lot out of this workshop...mostly because it was something I really wanted to know more about. I want to write the story of the Rickshaw Run that my husband and I did last year (wow, was it really only last year? It feels like it was a lifetime ago) and hoped this class would give me the tools to make it into something not only interesting but publishable. Claire gave us titles of books to read, authors to peruse...she gave us writing exercises and feedback...pages of notes and encouragement. Once again we were told to write -  we first must ...