Writers in Action Blog 1. The Making of a Memoir Part 1

Memoirs and their making were given particular attention at Write Around the Murray 2016. Anson Cameron, author of ‘Boyhoodlum’ and Biff Ward, author of ‘My Mother’s Hands’, helped to shed light on the process behind the making of a memoir. A workshop with Cameron and a panel discussion with Ward, also featuring Ben Law and Helena Pastor, gave a broad and varied view of the process behind the decision to write a memoir and how to bring the content to life.

During his workshop, Anson spoke about how memories change ever so slightly upon each recollection, and noted that “as memories recede into the past, they ultimately become more exotic”. This played a part in his decision to write a memoir. Looking back over his life, he admits that while his surroundings in the Victorian town/city of Shepparton didn’t seem so at the time, he now – perhaps somewhat nostalgically – views them as exotic. Cameron likens his childhood setting to that of Twain’s Tennessee, with a sense of reverence that begs us to view the past and present as two separate worlds, albeit connected through a string of memories. This string of memories doesn’t go without knots, some series of events appearing as more of a flipbook in an indeterminate order, similarly to the aforementioned blurring of the lines between reality and fanciful recollection. Perhaps this too compelled Cameron or other authors to document their life in such a way. Others attending the workshop can attest to this. A lady in attendance shared with the workshop one of many stories she had heard from her Uncle, who had fallen ill. As he was always reluctant to be recorded sharing his life’s stories, and had a penchant for being wise to a hidden recorder, she expressed her desire to document his many tales and triumphs before she could no longer recall them herself. This was all told as a lead-in to the question of: how do you decide what to include? Cameron then goes on to describe a wedding, where the mother-in-law is seen “waddling” alongside the pond, “what does the reader want? They probably want me to walk over to her and push her in”. This was Anson’s own unique example of what he calls “turning up the volume” on your retelling, finding the balance between the unembellished version of events and the one the reader needs in order to remain engaged with the content.

I would like to thank Anson for a wonderfully entertaining workshop, my fellow attendees for their contributions to some fascinating discussion on the topic of memoirs and of course the festival organisers that made it all possible. The second part of my two part ‘Making of a Memoir’ series can be found in Blog 4 of the larger series covering WAM 2016 as a student of the Writers in Action subject. This will cover the aforementioned panel discussion between Biff Ward, Benjamin Law and Helena Pastor.