From fragments and impressions to clear, confident writing You’re facing up to a piece of writing – any piece – but your overwhelming thought is “I don’t know what I want to say yet.” You probably do, but it’s still tucked away in the recesses of your brain, between shopping lists and that work email […]
Category: Memoir
Memoir Writing: Truth, Ownership, and the Ethics of Telling Your Story
What happens when a bestselling memoir turns out not to be entirely true? The storm surrounding The Salt Path by Raynor Winn has highlighted a central problem in memoir writing: what counts as the truth—and who gets to tell it? The Salt Path, by Raynor Winn, is a hugely successful book (and now film) about […]
The Gift of Story: An Alternative Christmas Approach
It’s the thought that counts. That’s what people say, and sometimes mean. The people in your life who usually mean it the most are those with lots of stuff – people like grandparents. I remember giving my Nana soap, and even at eight years old, noticing her ‘Not another one’ face. And now that I’m […]
Thinking About Blogging? Start Here
Some of us (like me) remember card catalogues. You know, the ones in libraries where you pulled open a long wooden drawer and flicked through cards organised by subject or author. Nowadays, information is just a few keystrokes away – as is everybody’s opinion about everything. Blogs combine the two: information and opinion. A good […]
Why Write Your Story?
I’m lucky – I come from a family of people who liked to write. People who didn’t have a lot of formal education, but who kept diaries and wrote memoirs. As a consequence, I have the words of great uncles, grandmothers and my mother. These have become taonga, fleshing out the skeletons provided by certificates […]