tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19099492.post8646571341180127851..comments2023-09-24T12:56:56.332+01:00Comments on Roger's Plog: Essential and non-essential writing.Roger Morrishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08071467030127707462noreply@blogger.comBlogger6125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19099492.post-89932876068270498182008-03-14T15:31:00.000+00:002008-03-14T15:31:00.000+00:00Thanks Emma. Very interesting and thought-provokin...Thanks Emma. Very interesting and thought-provoking take, as always. I agree with the thing about being ready. I'm a great believer in letting things cook. The danger with that when you're dealing with autobiographical material - for me at least - is that the longer you leave it the more reliant you become on your memory. The greater the danger of forgetting the details that are actually at the time the most vital element and therefore laying yourself open to the risk of making stuff up to fill in the gaps.<BR/><BR/>Thanks for the kind words re The Devil's Drum.Roger Morrishttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08071467030127707462noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19099492.post-13336334824174576122008-03-14T09:31:00.000+00:002008-03-14T09:31:00.000+00:00Roger, your project with Ed Hughes sounds so excit...Roger, your project with Ed Hughes sounds so exciting - <I>The Tin Drum</I> was really wonderful (and my opera-singer/musicologist sister agreed) so I can't wait for this.<BR/><BR/>But yes, why do we resist what seems the most important writing of all? Yes, you want to do it justice, and yes, you know it'll be more overwhelming - even painful - than other material which is less close to your core. But as you say, it's not a binary division between autobiographical stuff and external stuff: since everything comes from inside us, everything's autobiographical. Maybe it's the difference between what just gets in there because it's us writing it, and what we actually decide to explore in all its layers and complexities.<BR/><BR/>Sometimes I think the resistance is because we're just not ready. I know I'm only just ready to write about some things, but I've known I will do it when I'm ready for a couple of years.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19099492.post-63074863164549029742008-02-27T21:31:00.000+00:002008-02-27T21:31:00.000+00:00Hi Sarah, thanks for looking in. There are times w...Hi Sarah, thanks for looking in. There are times when The Writer's Book of Hope sounds like just the book I need! Sounds interesting. I don't know in all honesty if I ever will write the stuff I was talking about in para one. It may turn out to be just too personal. But this nagging sense of having something important to do may be caused by unfinished business. Or it may just be because my road tax is coming up for renewal!<BR/><BR/>Thanks for the kind words Emily.<BR/><BR/>Hi Brian, yes, there is a great deal of consolation, I think, in discovering that you're not the only one.Roger Morrishttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08071467030127707462noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19099492.post-31537844744720412502008-02-27T11:23:00.000+00:002008-02-27T11:23:00.000+00:00Hi RogerThe Sunday Times review was a great one an...Hi Roger<BR/>The Sunday Times review was a great one and well-deserved. Congratulations. And I loved and comletely understood the learned helplessness post - nice to know we're all going through the same things!<BR/>Cheers<BR/>Brian McGillowayAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19099492.post-20171996001812740982008-02-27T11:20:00.000+00:002008-02-27T11:20:00.000+00:00Great post, Roger. Maybe Virginsky is your younger...Great post, Roger. Maybe Virginsky is your younger self, and Porfiry is your projected older self, and you're currently somewhere in the middle.<BR/><BR/>Keep doing what you're doing, I say. And congrats on the review.E.G.https://www.blogger.com/profile/04739450222683170149noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19099492.post-90375154031129628912008-02-26T16:35:00.000+00:002008-02-26T16:35:00.000+00:00Fascinating post, Roger, especially about the auto...Fascinating post, Roger, especially about the autobiographical content of everything we write. I think that fear of getting it wrong is present in all of us - the more urgent the need to write it, the greater the fear that we will mess it up or tackle it prematurely (there's some fascinating stuff about this in Ralph Keyes' Writer's Book of Hope, which is neither as banal nor as patronising as the title may suggest!). I too have stories I know I must tell, that consume me, that I hesitate to start. Part of the reason is that I don't feel ready, as a writer, equipped to write these yet. Partly they are stories I cannot tell in the lifetime of family members who would struggle to understand my need to tell them. But carrying a story like that, nurturing it in your head, is an amazing feeling, isn't it?Sarah Hilaryhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03379986260169703599noreply@blogger.com