Storytelling

I am writing about my reasons for writing Storytelling and discussing some of the pitfalls and choices I made in writing about something personal.
On the back cover of my memoir is the following blurb "Storytelling is a memoir looking at the itinerant childhood of a girl born to a Showie and a boxer...'
When this memoir was getting published I was asked what my inspiration was for writing this work. It was a lot of things really that all came together.
My youngest son had asked for a detective novel which I wrote and he didn't read because he has dyslexia. He was always saying that I should write some of my stories down and so after the detective novel I did.
As well as this, my mother had recently died and I was missing her. I found that by writing up old stories that she had told me and that were family favourites I could keep her with me. She has gone now.
I think this is one of the problems of writing a memoir, it exorcises the things that we had wanted to hold onto.
Also, I was recently retired and didn't know what to do with myself. My husband, who is six years younger than me took to retirement like a duck to water. Or so he says. For me it took writing this memoir to even get close to feeling happy that I wasn't considered useful by my society anymore.
I also felt that during my working life working meant that I had no time left for creativity. I wanted to write but didn't have the energy or the time when I was working. When I first retired I thought that if I had the luxury of this extended time without work I should do something with it. Hence, the memoir.
Anyway, next week I'll talk more about the pitfalls of writing a memoir and what it means to other people.

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