Category: On Writing
Twisted Truths: How Real Life Inspires Fiction
“Where do you get your ideas?” may be the question that fiction writers like least. For most writers, ideas come from inconsequential encounters or “what if?” questions, neither of which is a particularly interesting story to tell in an interview. Other ideas may derive from situations the writer has lived and then twisted a little […]
Let’s Hear It for the Girls!
No matter how near we are to our biblically allotted three score years and ten, we always remember our milestone firsts: first kiss, first car, first horizontal episode. Mothers are likewise big on firsts: first word their child spoke, first step, first lost tooth. These events constitute the magical moments, forever tucked away in the […]
Creating from the Deep Well
Over the last year, I’ve spent some time at holy wells. Each is different. Some exposed to the sea air; some tucked within forest; some hiding in plain sight on the edge of pasture. So many, yet none entirely the same. When we talk about creativity, there’s a lot of conversation about wells, too. There […]
Amah Juanita by Roselle Lim
Roselle Lim was born in the Philippines and immigrated to Canada as a child. She lived in north Scarborough in a diverse, Asian neighbourhood. She found her love of writing by listening to her lola (paternal grandmother’s) stories about Filipino folktales. Growing up in a household where Chinese superstition mingled with Filipino Catholicism, she devoured […]
Techniques for Flexing Memory Muscles
After writing my memoir, Being Mean: A Memoir of Sexual Abuse and Survival, one question I have been asked frequently is, “How can you remember details from so long ago?” Excavating our life experiences can indeed be a challenging and illuminating experience. But certain practices have helped hone my memory muscles, allowing me to dig […]
Your Writing Group & You: How to Get the Most Out of What Can Be a Challenging Experience
Writing fiction is a solitary pursuit. The writers of Saturday Night Live might have great craic (“craic” being the Irish word for “fun”) aiming paper airplanes across the table, and end up with memorable and quirky sketches, but it doesn’t work for us novelists. We must work alone. Thus, we need to pause long enough […]
Excerpt from Water Mask: Interpreting Frozen Ground
In Water Mask, Devine skis woodland trails with her baby on her back, navigates sea ice with whalers and whirls two thousand feet above the tundra with a rookie bush pilot. She negotiates the death of her father, and the near loss of her family’s cabin on the Copper River. Reflections on family, place, memory, work, […]
From Novel to Memoir
I have always wanted to write novels. My very first novel was published by a company who specialised in short novels written for the older end of the reading market ie love but no sex, and were available only through libraries. I was delighted. My career had taken off. Not so, as we writers know. […]
Secrets in the Suitcase: Five Lessons from Writing my Memoir
Visiting my mother at her home in Richmond, Virginia involves equal parts big hugs and, frequently, big worries. When, a year ago, I stepped out of the airport taxi, my first thought – usually, I hope she’s doing well – was of the draft manuscript of my memoir in my bag. Rather than set it […]
Gifts For The Writer
I met Elizabeth Peavey at the University of Southern Maine’s Stonecoast summer workshop several years ago. As the playwright of “My Mother’s Clothes Are Not My Mother,” she gave her audience something to laugh about. She is a funny lady. As a workshop leader, she made her group of aspiring writers smile and laugh; if […]
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