What Happens in the Downtime

Writing Creative Memoir

(If you want to listen this week instead of reading, the recording is above. I’m not great at this yet, sounds a bit flat and a bit weird to me, but hopefully I’ll get better, so please bear with me.)

This week we are still very much in recovery mode in the house. Firstly, we are still shaking off the flu and secondly we are recovering from all the hassle (it started Christmas Eve) with boilers and adjusting to a new digital mode of operation which has been frustrating. But I think, at least hope, we’re there now.

As a consequence I’ve had lot of downtime. I’ve not done much writing but there’s been plenty of time for thinking. And sometimes, as all writers know, in the space that opens up, in the fallow time, problems are mysteriously solved. So it’s been this week. The not doing has led to a breakthrough of sorts. The kind that mathematicians, like my brother, talk about where you’re not working on the problem, but you’re in the bath, or washing up, waking up, or out walking, and suddenly the solution presents itself.

What this means in writing terms is that I’ve taken the black memoir file-the one I keep putting away-back out of the drawer and I’ve begun thinking and working on a new creative approach.

Reading, Tips on Memoir Writing by Sean Lusk, (you need to scroll down this link page to read it) was a catalyst. It’s a brilliant and thought provoking essay on the nature of memoir. I’ve read so much about and around the subject of creative memoir but I’ve never seen it put quite like this: A memoir only has to present a truth, something plausibly true, and based on personal memories, but in which the story takes precedence. Very often memoir is not about the writer at all…

I mulled it over, I realised I needed to take the ‘I’ out of the text. The first person narrative was holding me back, pinning me down. I needed to re-invent myself - and now that I have I can see my way through.

More of this, much more, in coming posts.

If you’re interested in writing memoir and in taking a creative approach, that is not entirely linear or autobiographical, then you can follow my progress here. I’m also giving serious thought to running a creative memoir course - maybe in person, maybe online, maybe a mix…but I’m still at the wondering if it’s a good idea and how and where stage..

This week, also in the downtime:

I finished reading Talking at Night by Clare Daverley, a book that really captivated me; a beautifully written and poignant story about the enduring power of love.

I returned to reading, Linda Lappin, and made a map of my childhood places - from an exercise in The Soul of Place. An invaluable book for writers. (If scroll you down this linked post you can read what I said previously about the book)

I started listening to Scenes from a Childhood - ‘the latest collection of stories by Jon Fosse, one of Norway's most celebrated writers, famed for the minimalist and unsettling quality of his writing. Translated by Damion Searls.’ on BBC iPlayer.

My son and daughter-in-law and their twin girls are currently visiting family in Norway so this gave the stories added interest for me. I’ve also been listening to some Miles Davis, and an old Larry Coryell album - Sketches of Coryell which is a real blast from the past.

I watched the first season of Love/Hate on ITVX - Dublin, drugs, organised crime, a lot of violence, I always close my eyes at those bits, and some sex, I can keep my eyes open for those bits.

I caught up with my writing buddy who is back from several months in France. It is always so good to spend time together, talking about the thing we love doing most.

And whenever I went in and out of the house which wasn’t really that much, my heart lifted at the sight of the snowdrops in the front garden. They multiply every year. They are really quite something.

Photo from February 2023

Thanks for reading

Avril x