Thursday, December 4, 2008

Writing Thru It - in 5 parts

My project, Writing Thru It,comes in five parts. I have taught it in four sessions and I've taught it in six, but in my mind it is divisible by five. It progresses, if that is the right term, from letters to journals/diaries into essays to fiction and then lands in poetry. What better place to land if you must, than in poetry?

There are two points I would make about the name. Yes, I mean to spell it 'thru'. It is my attempt to lighten up, to not take things, especially myself, too seriously. I originally called it the Transformative Power of Writing. Accurate, but, oh please.

More importantly the name has a lot of meaning for me. I have been thru it, it here being the it referred to in Shit Happens. I'm not the only one, I know that, so I am grateful to be able to work with my own problems by sharing a method that has worked for me. Of course, you don't need stress for Writing Thru It, maybe you just enjoy writing or exploration.

I'm also writing a memoir, Up Home Again, a much longer attempt at writing thru it about my return to Maine after decades of living away.

Whether you write for publication or exploration, keep writing. Writing helps.

2 comments:

Dody Jane said...

Ellie - I am going to a memoir writing seminar in Charleston SC in January. I am very excited. My best stuff is my memoir stuff, so I suppose 'writing thru it' is something I should concentrate on as well...

Ellie O'Leary said...

Dody, I think you will love memoir. Since all writing is autobiographic, even your fiction writing will be enhanced.