Write Your Life

#Swanwick70 - Day 4

Secrets lie beneath the surface

One of the advantages of Swanwick is the huge variety of courses and workshops on offer. None have to be booked in advance and you can switch from one to another. Or do none at all.

So far I have learned about Writing for Competitions, Publishing, Niche Publishing and Erotica.

For my specialist course I chose “Write Your Life” to find more about Memoirs. According to Laurie Lee, the purpose of autobiography is “the laying to rest of ghosts, an ordering of the mind, a celebration of living and an attempt to hoard its memories”.

Despite this, I have no intention to write about my life. Nevertheless there are techniques used in writing memoir which are transferable to fiction writing and I hope these will give depth and substance to my future short story writing.

This all makes Swanwick sound very serious but it certainly isn’t. Everywhere people are smiling and there is much jollity. 

And although we have passed the halfway point there are still two very full days of laughter and good humour to come.