Writers Journal

It is easy for a writer to become lost in content when writing a memoir. What belongs? What goes out? What is the motive for writing it? How does one shape it? In this article, written for Lee Koffman’s blog, ‘The Writer Laid Bare’, I outline responses to these and...

Photo by WOLTER PEETERSThere’s a pattern. Initially, for instance, author Carol Major suggests this story be about her publisher, Spineless Wonders, rather than herself. Then she proposes it be about her and her sister (Canadian poet Alice Major), who is releasing a...

I have been thinking about life experiences and writing. Most creative writers write out of experience but hate to be pinned down by it, as if every line says something about the author’s life story. Of course some very fine writing is about life stories but even...

I so enjoyed having Hilda Tam and Chris Song at Carol’s Table. I worked with Hilda on a cross-cultural project years ago. She is a fine novelist, who introduced me to Chris, an equally fine poet. Both are translators. Chris has translated Les Murray's poetry for a...

I’ve had a rather colourful life. Some think this should provide copious material to inspire many novels. But one must be wary of too much content. It can suck you down. I am reminded of that family in Anne Tyler’s, The Clock Winder. Too much drama. Impossible to find...


My father was a gunner in the merchant marines and there is a story of him getting drunk and missing a boat that was sunk by the Germans. Such stories were meant to describe the randomness of fate and fragility of good timing. They would always end with my father...

In answering a question about the fundamental starting point for any story, Margaret Atwood replied,
 
“Be clear about who is telling this story to whom and about what.”
 
I come from a family of people who tell stories—often the same ones over and over again. One of...