Book Sanctuary

As part of my local writing group recently I decided to write an autobiographical piece. It seemed strange to be writing about myself in this way, particularly due to my relatively tender age of 26. I’ve always scoffed at celebrities releasing Autobiographies when they’re barely out of their teens, for example. Surely, I thought, you have to be old, wise and experienced before you can possibly comprehend and understand yourself?

It turns out that was flawed thinking, as writing a piece about a past experience not only revived some important memories from my youth, but also helped my writing in terms of style and delivery. Finding my ‘voice’ in writing is difficult, and yet writing in my own voice led to a positive reaction from my writing group friends. It was a pleasing moment, and it has been cathartic in terms of helping me to structure the writing style that I’m going to employ in my novel, which I’m starting to get stuck into.

The catharsis was not only significant in terms of my writing voice, but in terms of addressing one of the demons in my closet. The subject matter for the piece, which I will publish as a free download in the near future, was swimming lessons at High School. This may seem to be trivial subject matter, but I didn’t realise, until I wrote this piece, how significant this period was in my teenage years. It was a gruelling experience in my life that taught me many lessons, particularly that I never want to swim again! Being a 26 year old who can’t swim is no big deal, being a 12 year old who can’t swim is unbearable.

When I read the piece to my friends I actually felt emotional as I worked through it. I sure felt better afterwards, and the fact that it came across as an enjoyable piece of writing was rewarding to me both personally and as a writer. So one tip I’d share with fellow budding writers; write about yourelf. It certainly worked for me.

Until next time,

Thomas