Uncovering Stories
On the emotional heavy lifting that's needed when working on a difficult story.
The Iolaire Disaster happened on the Isle of Lewis, New Year's Eve in 1918. Servicemen were returning home from the Great War. The ship took the wrong course and ran aground on the Beasts of Holm, outside Stornoway harbour. 201 men were killed.
Writing about the Iolaire Disaster can uncover emotions. It may partly be connected to being from the Isle of Lewis, although I know others who are not, and are just as emotionally affected by the tragedy of it.
Reading the work of writers through the years, down the generations, is deeply affecting.
I wrote a blog post about it here - Writing about the Iolaire.
Hilary Mantel - A Memoir of my former self
More than one person has said that when writing a novel, it is best not to read Nabokov. I find the writing of Hilary Mantel has somewhat the same effect. So sharp and observant, wide-ranging and eloquent.
’A Memoir of my Former Self’ is a collection of Mantel’s journalism for publications like The London Revew of Books and the Spectator (she was the film reviewer from 1986-90.)
The writer leaves an impression of themselves on every page and her writing, her sentences, seem to work on different levels. The writing is crafted so that the word choice, the way she puts together sentences, is satisfying in itself. Her many frames of reference go so deep that other landscapes are opened up to you during the reading, and her truthfulness and how much she gives of herself brings us closer to understanding the human condition.
She exactly hits her aim in whatever she is writing, especially when she is writing about the craft of the writer.
“There are plenty of books that tell you how to become a writer, but not one that suggests how, if you want a normal life, you might reverse the process.”
Thanks for reading.
Iain F