I was recently invited by Suzanne McCourt to join the Writing Process Blog Tour. The idea is you answer four questions (as below) and invite another writer or writers to post on their own blogs in a week’s time.

I have invited Jennifer Smart and Walter Mason to continue the chain.They will be will be posting on May 19. Jennifer on her blog A Sampler and Walter on his blog waltermason.com. Jennifer recently launched her first novel The Wardrobe Girl with Random House and Walter’s travel memoir Destination Cambodia ( Allen & Unwin 2013) follows his best selling Destination Saigon (Allen &Unwin 2010).

You might also like to read the post by Lee Kofman who took part in another chain on her blog a couple of weeks back.

Ok, here we go…

So …what am I working on now?

I’m working on a memoir called My Mother, Duras about a trip I took in Vietnam and Cambodia in 2009, following the footsteps of the French writer, Marguerite Duras.

How does my work differ from others of its genre?

If we call my genre memoir, then I must ask which sub-genre of memoir is it? It could be a travel memoir and yet that is just part of the story. It could be a literary memoir, but I’m not sure how literary I want to get. It also has a family memoir aspect. My current description is:
My Mother, Duras weaves three strands of memoir into one: the author’s lifelong infatuation with the French writer Marguerite Duras, a journey through Vietnam following the scent of her literary hero, and an musing on mothers and melancholy.

Mm, but as I write this it still sounds a little too boxed in and I want to take Duras’ lead and make it much more experimental —perhaps write the strands across the page as J.M. Coetzee did in his Diary of a Bad Year. I’m not sure, I’m getting out the scissors an glue as we speak!

Why do I write about what I do?

Much of my work is memoir based ( fiction as well) including most of the work I did in theatre and film before I wrote prose. It’s simply because I am driven to express and make sense of the big and small things that happen in my life: people, events, experiences, feelings, challenges, successes, failures and so on. When I first began writing songs, I found an outlet for voicing what I thought were very personal concerns. On performing them I found out these things were universally experienced and that I had a knack for expressing the unspoken. I like to think that spirit continues in my current work.

How does my writing process work?

Back in the good ole days when we didn’t have the distractions of the internet it was so much simpler. I would apply for a grant, or be commissioned to write a play or film and would work on one project at a time. I’d be at my desk like a full time office worker from 9-3 when it was time to pick up the kids from school. What a luxury ! These days the kids are grown up and I can work 24/7 (which I do) but much of my time is taken up with teaching and mentoring other writers (UWS, UTS, writer’s centres) And ten years have passed since I began leading Writers Journey retreats in inspiring international locations, like Bali, Fiji, Cambodia, Burma, Laos, Morocco, and collaborating with artists, musicians and writers in Asia.I have become an ‘artrepreneur’ and finding time to keep my own writing going is quite a challenge. My work sometimes takes a back seat until I remember my own advice to writing students – always keep the door open on your writing, even if just for 10 minutes a day.

My process begins with a scrap book. I always start one at the beginning of a project for collecting images, ideas, documents, snippets, maps etc. I have taught this method to all the writers I work with and some like Margo Lanagan and Jennifer Smart, have taken it to a fine art. It’s a great place to go when the writing gets stuck and or when I need to trick myself into writing again. Then I work longhand in notebooks until I have enough material to start putting in the computer.  Once I transfer to the screen I tend to write from there unless I get stuck, which is when I go back to my notebooks or scrapbook again.
When I have a draft I print it out and bind it – make it look like a book. It’s always so obvious then what needs to be cut. I edit with a pen on the page then go through the edits on the screen with the hard copy as my guide. Then start the process all over again.

When I am working to a deadline I try to set aside internet free mornings for writing.The trouble is once I start writing I never want to stop. So timetabling alternate days for writing and admin can also work. My best writing is done in blocks of time like when I plan mini residencies at the end of my international trips. The last one was in Sefrou, a small town near Fez in Morocco, where a friend runs artist residencies. My guest house was a former Rabi’s residence. I had a big room with a writing table, delicious tajine meals in the dining room downstairs and a sunny rooftop with views over the town. I woke, read, ate, wrote, and went for walks in a daily rhythm that brought such feeling of peace and happiness, I remembered with great joy how fortunate I am to spend my days this way and why I love to write.

If you would like to join us on our Indochine Journey in August find out more here. 

Fancy Morocco in November?

Closer to home: First Page To First Draft Semester 2 begins end of May, Turning Memory into Memoir begins at NSW Writer’s Centre for four Sundays beginning June 1.

Mentoring with Jan – enquire about our packages here.