There is nothing to writing. All you do is sit down at a typewriter and bleed – Ernest Hemingway
As people look for quick and easy ways to become good, or even great, at writing they turn to established authors for some secret insight. This has seen the world of writing become populated with mantras and truisms, most pointing toward the same thing: if you want to become a good writer, write. But is it really as simple, or hard, as that? Is writing, especially creative writing, something that you are born with or is it a skill and talent that can be thought and learned?
With literacy growing around the world and script becoming ever more important in communication the written word has grown in importance. Not restricted to any field this trend has seen a growth in the number of novels, biographies, fictions, and non-fictions available every year. As a result the teaching of creative writing has grown as a market and profession.
Last year Four Courts Press published Imagination in the Classroom; teaching and learning creative writing in Ireland’. Gathering together a number of essays by some of Ireland’s foremost authors and creative writing teachers this book offers insights into this growing profession and what it’s like teaching and learning how to write.
On ‘Talking Books’ Susan delves into the world of creative writing with two of the books co-editors, author Éilís Ní Dhuibhne and lecturer Dr Eibhear Walshe, as well as author Mary O’Donnell. Listen back as they take us through we find out what it’s like teaching and learning creative writing and what some of their best tips and tricks are.
One of the hardest, yet almost instinctual, forms of writing is the memoir. Having lived the story we are telling we don’t need to strain to conjure the content needed to fill the pages. Yet the honesty needed to write a good memoir takes a terribly toll as we not only lay ourselves bare on the page but also all of those around us. Those who are closest and mean the most to us are often the worst hurt as we bare their lives and secrets open alongside our own.
Annie Lubliner Lehmann is one of these brave authors who have decided to share their life and the lives of those closest to them with the world. In The Accidental Teacher: Life Lessons from my Silent Son Lehmann opens up about her experience as the mother of an autistic child. A fantastic and insightful read this memoir shows us that we can always learn something new and that often the most unexpected people make the greatest teachers.
Listen back as Susan talks with Annie Lubliner Lehmann about her life experiences and what it was like writing this touching memoir. What is it like baring yourself and the things most important to you in life to the world?
