In an adult ed class I once took after work, my professor had urged the students to embrace saying out loud to others in your life, "I'm a writer". She reminded us, it doesn't matter whether you have published or not, whether you have another day job, whether you only write in diaries in pencil. If you are writing, if you are even wanting to write and you are starting to try, well, you are a writer.
I had less of a hard time with that as I had with telling people that I want to write a memoir about my life experiences (the follow up question "What is it going to be about?" is always hard to answer succinctly) .
I'm still sometimes unclear on exactly how to say it comfortably, but there there is a heartbeat inside of me that knows I'm on the right path. I have a favorite Rufus Wainwright song, "I don't know where it is, but I've got to be there. I don't know what it is, but I've got to do it."
I feel incredibly blessed this year because (along with many things that have come my way since moving to Boston) I was accepted in March into a small class called Memoir Generator at Grub Street, a nonprofit writing center near Boston Common, which encourages writers of all ages and experience levels. Most people attend writing classes not just for guidance but because it keeps you accountable: it makes you go through with it.
Memoir Generator is a big jump in that commitment for me -- from 2 month courses I had tried out before to a now 9 month course with tons of writing homework every week.
The time will probably fly, but the hope is that in November, I will have gone from having seeds, scraps, ideas, notes tucked into a million journals to having real stories with titles, draft numbers and page lengths. I already have added so much to a Google Drive since I started thinking about this course in January. And the first two classes were epiphany catalysts! -- I've surprisingly been able to articulate why I'm writing, what I want to achieve, how it will relate to the reader, and in the second week, I had an a-ha moment of structuring my memoir into chapters or sections, and ways I want to link the sections.
Since I have been shy about admitting my compulsion to write before, I thought I should be brave and just state it here now.
I want to write a book that is either memoir or creative non-fiction about the pivotal experiences in my life, the places I was, or wanted to be, the people (characters) who influenced me in these moments, the internal conflicts I faced, and of course the music that I was listening to at that time. The music (ipod, walkman, car radio) is in fact probably my narrator's main supporting character.
Going through with this is very important to me and I'm simply elated that I got accepted for this class. Jose is incredibly supportive and pushing me to keep going. I will keep this blog posted as the epiphanies keep on pouring in. Wish me luck!