Epistolary Form

Since we talked about the epistolary from in our creative writing class I am obsessed with it. Those days, I keep wanting to write in this form or in variants of it (and I have noticed that I am not the only one from the class that feels this way).

 I find that it opens a door into the life of the character. You see what the character wants to share and how he shares it.
It also allows many different narrators within one story. Letters by many different characters can be included.
I also find interesting how you construct a plot through letters. I think that Chelsea, in our class, did a great job at constructing a story with emails. You could easily trace character development through the exchange of messages.

My final comment: It is so great that the characters are writing the story.

Constructing a Story with Memories

Recently, I have realized that people like my stories best when they are made out of a collage of memories. That doesn't mean that they are not fiction. I mix up various past impressions, feelings and/or events and project them on fictitious characters and plots. I can see why this technique would be effective. Since the feelings behind the story are true, the story must ring true.

This is a picture I took of an abbey in Scotland.
It made me think of Wordsworth's poetry

I found in William Wordsworth's "Preface to Lyrical Ballads" an interesting passage expressing a similar idea:

"I have said that poetry is the spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings: it takes its origin from emotion recollected in tranquillity: the emotion is contemplated till by a species of reaction the tranquillity gradually disappears, and an emotion, kindred to that which was before the subject of contemplation, is gradually produced, and does itself actually exist in the mind. In this mood successful composition generally begins, and in a mood similar to this it is carried on..." (273)

Source: Wordsworth, William. "Preface to Lyrical Ballads." The Norton Anthology of English Literature: The Romantic Period. Ed. Jack Stillinger and Deidre Shauna Lynch. New York and London: W.W. Norton, 2006. 263-274. Print.

Still, it makes me worry about the power of imagination. Can we write about things we don't personally know? Can we write about a feeling we never had?

Bilingual Acrobatics

Laurier Gareau at a writers' retreat in Saskatoon last March

I recently participated in a circle of writers in Regina. Since it was the first meeting of the season, everyone shared the big lines of their current projects. Laurier Gareau was one of the writers participating. He has plays published at La nouvelle plume and writes on a regular basis for the Historical Society (Société historique). His play The Big Wave will be staged in Saskatoon next February and March.
The way he decided to write his new project surprised me. Laurier is writing a novel for children. He wrote the first chapter in English and then translated it in French. For the next chapter, he decided to write first in French and then translate into English. He will repeat this pattern until the novel is finished. I can't wait to see the result and how the language will influence his style.