Daejeong, le 31 mars 2021
All my professional life I have been in positions where I wrote a lot, memoirs, memos, reports, speeches, minutes, press releases, letters, e-mails… When I left Canada to come to Korea almost two years ago, many of my family and friends said: “Hey Alain, you write so well, you should write a blog about your new adventures.” Easier said than done. Professional writing and personal writing are two different things. Maybe the spelling and the grammar are the same but the words don’t come from the same place.
The last time I wrote personal stuff, about myself, my feelings, my life, I was a young man from Québec madly in love with a young woman from Saskatchewan. We had over 3,200 kilometers between us. Most of my money went to Bell Canada, Canada Post and Air Canada. We wrote a lot of letters, almost every day. I couldn’t wait to get home to look in my mail box for a letter from Steph. They were the best. Every free moment I had I spent with a pen and paper. I wanted to tell her everything, I wanted her to know everything. These letters were very personal.
Even after Steph moved to Québec, I carried her letters with me in my briefcase to read in the métro or while eating lunch by myself in a Café. Unfortunately my briefcase was stolen from my car many years ago and Steph’s letters were lost. I do carry the memories though.
I have been thinking about writing for a little while. How does one start? What to write about? How to make it interesting? I have also always been interested in reading but I’ve often complained that my professional life did not allow me enough time to read. Oh, I was always reading for my work, about architecture, urban planning, social development and politics. I wanted to read novels, biographies, the classics. I decided that my time in the métro, to go to and come back from work would be my personal reading time. I carried a “métro novel”. I got out of my head and into my novel fifty minutes every work day. Now that I’m retired, I’ve been reading a little more. I even joined a Book Club. We meet about every six weeks. There is not a lot of talk about the book itself but we do have fun.
During my volunteering at the school library, I met a local writer. After publishing four books she was giving writing lessons to some parent volunteers. I approached her and eventually started semi private lessons. So far, I have seen her three times. I heard about the Slice of Life challenge on February 26th, three days before it started. I thought OK, no time to think about it, let’s just do it.
Writing on a daily basis is certainly challenging. There is no time to think too much, no time to revise but I did it. This is Slice 31 and I’m happy to be done. It was demanding but I’m also happy I did it. Thank you for this wonderful opportunity!
Alain, I have enjoyed having you in the SOL challenge. Your stories have been engaging. You know how to build suspense. I certainly understand your comments about genres differing so much. I’ve always thought of myself as a better essayist and academic writer than a storyteller or memoirist.
I read Beth Kephart’s book “Handling the Truth: On the Writing of Memoir” a few years ago and attended one of her workshops in 2019. That year I won the Highlights Foundation prize in this challenge, and I was able to study with Meg Medina and share my writing w/ this amazing Newberry Award winner. Both women offered wonderful insights into story craft. I like seeing where an idea leads me.
You know you can pop in on Tuesdays and share more of your adventures. I’ll keep reading. Until next time, may peace and inspiration be your companions.
I liked your posts and I have enjoyed myself. Earlier I thought it would be difficult to write everyday but it was not. It was fun.
So glad you joined us. The fun doesn’t stop! Come back on Tuesdays. You may find it can be harder to do Tuesdays as it isn’t a part of your daily routine. Perhaps you will write each day and post one of your weekly creations on Tuesdays.
I am sorry you lost your briefcase full of treasures. I recently found out that the friend who was holding my writing from an intense period of my life had a house fire, so it is all gone. Like you said, I still have the memories – not only of the writing itself, but of the process of writing and the memories of reading the other half of the cherished letter exchanges.
Bravo Alain! C’est incroyable que tu as pu écrire tous les jours du mois de mars! Tu as beaucoup mieux fait que moi!
A stolen case of letter and notes? Yikes!
But “I do carry the memories though.”
Yes.
Kevin
Congratulations on completing the challenge! It was so interesting to read about your journey to this place in your writing (and reading) life. I hope to see you on Tuesdays in the coming year. Happy writing!
Congratulations on completing this challenge…the goal for me is always to keep writing when the challenge ends….and then life happens and I get distracted…I love the idea of a semi private writing coach/partner even but then again….life happens..
The one thing I am sure is that our words matter and putting them on paper makes them last (even if they are someday lost!)
Thank you for your slices – I have learned a lot.
The lives of those letters may be living on somewhere – what a story of how and where they may resurface! Lots of possibilities there.