Why Do You Write?

My students know that I am a follower of Bobbie Christmas, editor, and writer. She is one of the most astute people on the subject of writing that I know. I subscribe to her free newsletter and save every one of them for future reference. 

In a recent blog post, Bobbie answers questions from writers. She answers with a question of her own. Why do you write?

https://www.zebraeditor.com/blog/writing/

That is a good question to ask yourself if you are a beginning writer or if you have been writing for a while but are not sure what you want to write, who you are writing for and what you want to say. Successful writers make plans. They outline a book or have an idea of the ending before they write the first sentence.

When writing a memoir, I suggest the writer keep in mind the audience he expects to have for his book. When I wrote my family history, Profiles and Pedigrees, Descendants of Thomas Charles Council, I knew this book was for the Council family. I knew that the descendants of Thomas Charles and his ten children would be the people who would read this book. I have been very pleased when others have read it and found it interesting as well.

The memoir I am writing about my own life is for my family as well, but I hope it carries a theme that will appeal to others. What is my story? What theme will thread through the book or books? When writing memoirs one doesn't have to put it all in one book. In fact, I like to write about various parts of my life that are relatable to the lives of others. My childhood growing up in the deep south on a farm in the 1950s is like historical writing to most people alive today. What makes my life unique is my family, my place in my family, my father's illness, four much older brothers, my sister, 15 years older than I, and my baby sister. The setting for this memoir is a 125-acre farm in deep south Georgia. My stories are about the relationships with my parents and my siblings, my love for pets, especially horses, and all the years I longed for my own horse, but could not have one. A horse just for me to ride was a ridiculous idea that would cost far too much. 

I hope I can write this story well enough that my readers will feel the emotion stirring in them, will hope that this child will someday have that pony she dreams about. I want my readers to understand that no one was punishing me. They just looked at it from a monetary viewpoint. "A horse eats as much as a cow. But the cow can be sold for a profit or killed for meat for the family."

So, I hope I can hook readers and they will find my stories interesting. 

As I plan to teach a class in March for the Carl Sandburg Home Historic Site, I want to motivate and inspire the students to write and know why they write.  

We all have unique stories to tell. What is your story and who are your readers?

Books, Writers and Poems on My Mind Today

Blue Ridge, GA covered in fog on Saturday morning

Having had such a stimulating weekend at the Blue Ridge Writers' Conference in Blue Ridge, GA, I can't settle on one subject to write on today. I'll just mention a few ideas, books, people, and moments that grab me.

1. Rick Bragg's essay in Southern Living. In the very back of the magazine (the present issue is not online yet) he writes a column called Southern Journal. Some of you know that I have strong feelings about saying thank you. Rick, spurred on by his wife to express his gratitude with thank you notes, sent letters to Mr. Airline Executive, Mr. Fancy Restaurant Owner, and my favorite, Mr. Satellite Television Service Operator. Rick is one of my favorite authors. If you like southern literature by a Pulitzer prize-winning writer, find his books and begin reading. And if you have ever had a gripe with the airlines, a restaurant, television service or computer and Internet service, you might want to read Rick's letters in the April 2012 Southern Living magazine.

2. A book called Writing in Style by Bobbie Christmas, writer and editor for more than 30 years. She not only answers questions about grammar, but her advice is current, 21st Century. She incorporates contemporary technology. 

3. A Memoir: Invisible Sisters by Jessica Handler whom I met Saturday at the Writers Conference. I attended both her sessions and found Jessica who lives in Atlanta, to be extremely knowledgeable about writing. She teaches Creative Writing and hopefully we can host her at Writers Circle soon. Her story is about losing both her little sisters from illness, and growing up the only surviving child in a family torn apart by devastating loss. I have only had time to skim the book, but I feel it will help me make decisions of what I need to include in my own memoir which I continue to write. A writing exercise in class became an Aha Moment for me.

4. My Grandfather's Hands, poem from Scott Owens' book, For One Who Knows How to Own Land. I was immediately in love with Paternity, the first of Scott's books that I ordered, and I feel that way about this new book, but in a different way. One poem is so graphic, Slaughter, that it was hard to read, but the poem about his farmer grandfather's hands takes me back to my roots, to my father's hands. I studied Daddy's hands when he didn't know. Burned by sun, so brown they didn't seem to belong to his white arms beneath his shirt sleeves, his nails that never could be completely clean, and the south Georgia dirt that embedded the cracks in his fingers -- I could see them in Scott's poem.