Another round up post
“Reading is an exercise in empathy; an exercise in walking in someone else’s shoes for a while.” Malorie Blackman
Apologies again. I have to acknowledge from time to time that I need to take things a bit slower. Another lupus setback means this is happening right now - unsurprising on top of Covid booster jab, flu jab, emergency optician and today, a diabetes review all in the space of two weeks.
So once again I’m simply going to share a few links to blots and podcasts which I’ve found interesting lately.
A new podcast on Substack - interviews with authors from Hamish Mackenzie
The Active Voice with George Saunders
In the first episode of a new podcast, Hamish McKenzie talks to George Saunders about harnessing ambition, avoiding social media, and the value of literature
Twenty Reasons Why Everyone Should Write Short Stories
I have written a few, but they aren’t really my forte, but this made me wonder if I should give it another go.
Number 2 and 4 seem like good reasons! But the others may work better for you.
3. You can try out different genres easily with short stories. Have you written a couple of paranormal novels, and you’re wondering what it’d be like to write an historical mystery? Write a short story! Middle-grade fiction? Give it a try! Via short story, it’s so easy to dip a toe into the unknown. You’ll see how it feels to you, how well you’ve done, whether your appetite is now satisfied—or whetted for more.
4. Apart from trying out different genres and ideas, short stories let you experiment with different forms and voices at low cost. First person? Third omniscient? Even second person? Mixed, right in one story? What the hey, give it a whirl. See how it feels.
Elizabeth Simms
Mary Karr on Navigating Memory While Writing Memoir
I have long been fascinated by memories and its vagaries and even more so since grappling with what it means when writing a memoir.
Mary Karr’s book The Art of Memoir is a must - read, as this excerpt shows!
Memory is a pinball in a machine—it messily ricochets around between image, idea, fragments of scenes, stories you’ve heard. Then the machine goes tilt and snaps off. But most of the time, we keep memories packed away. I sometimes liken that moment of sudden unpacking to circus clowns pouring out of a miniature car trunk—how did so much fit into such a small space?You show up at your high school reunion shocked to find a middle-aged populace rather than the teens you passed in the hallways decades back. Then somebody mentions she sat behind you in Miss Pickett’s seventh-grade English class, and somehow her prepubescent face blooms awake in you. Then you remember where your locker was that year, and that speech class came after English, and since speech was last period you walked home across the football field’s fresh-mown grass, watching the boy you had a crush on in practice gear.
So a single image can split open the hard seed of the past, and soon memory pours forth from every direction, sprouting its vines and flowers up around you till the old garden’s taken shape in all its fragrant glory. Almost unbelievable how much can rush forward to fill an absolute blankness.
Mary Karr
And from the brilliant Tom Gauld
Here’s hoping I am more use next week"! ~
Ann
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Sorry to hear you are going through all that Ann. Your posts this week have been as inspiring as ever. I have a bit of a conundrum. I have been blocked for a couple of weeks but ready to write now I think. The thing is I haven't read back any of the 30 or so chapters I have written so far. I sort of keep it all in my head. I don't know whether to read it all before writing again or to just start banging down the last, and most exciting bit now and clear up after. Any suggestions?