Writing Camp!

View to the side, from the classroom. To the left (not shown) is the ocean.

I am taking a couple of classes at a week-long writer's conference this week. One class meets every day: Writing Fiction from Family Stories; the second one meets only Wednesday afternoon and is about inspiration for writing. There are also talks in the evening that I may attend, if I can find the time. I do get to go home every night and sleep in my own bed. And attend to my job during the rest of the day.

There are assignments. Today we had to come up with an idea. My first thought was to write something about my mother, who died in February. I was having trouble fictionalizing her life though. I talked to the teacher after class who suggested that maybe it was too early to write fiction based on my mother's life. Maybe a nonfiction memoir would be the way to start. She said she had similar feelings when she tried to write about her mother. That was a very helpful discussion.

I'd like to write about someone who plays the cello. Or about someone who lives in a nursing home/assisted living center. Or someone who lives in a nursing home and plays the cello. Someone who is a real person, not a caricature of an elderly person. Someone who has their wits about them (as my mother did). But I am thinking that it might be best to start with a character who is somewhat removed from me (and my mother). We'll see.

I don't write much fiction (just memoir and blog entries that sometimes want to leap in the direction of fiction), which is the reason I am taking the class.