A guest post by Cate Russell-Cole/@cateartios posted by Kathleen Pooler/@kathypooler
“Four basic premises of writing: clarity, brevity, simplicity and humanity.” William Zinsser
I am thrilled to feature Writing Teacher, Author and Editor Cate Russell-Cole in this guest post. Cate has been published in many local and Internet e-zines, magazines and newspapers; and she has researched, written and taught her own courses since 1990. Her most successful course to date is Write Your Life Story, which has a thriving community on Facebook. Cate offers a wealth of writing resources on her site communiCATE. We met online and although I can not remember exactly where we met, I can tell you I feel like I have known Cate forever.
Welcome, Cate!
When I teach memoir writing, my students are mostly women. Whenever we have a male in the classroom, the whole dynamic changes. Often, they don’t want to get too touchy-feely or pour their souls out for a public audience. That’s fine. There are as many types of memoir, as there are memoir writers.
In 2004 the Queensland Art Gallery purchased a collection of photographic images by the Australian society photographer, William Yang. These photos are a striking contrast to the gilt framed oils and quirky modern works throughout the gallery. They are a series of 30 black and white photographs, with one short paragraph hand-written under each photo: memoir in a new form… and even better, memoir in a strikingly simple and non-judgemental form. I took my class to view it, including our not so touchy-feely male (who was actually very warm and pleasant off paper.) Everyone walked out of the gallery inspired, considering how they could communicate conflicts and complex issues as easily.
William’s exhibition highlighted where his family had lived, their beliefs, their morals and their values. At no time was he ever judgmental about a family member or situation. He did release some skeletons from the family closet, but they were all his skeletons to set free. Out of respect, he waited until his close relatives were deceased before he did so. The picture he painted was realistic, but sensitive. I noticed that he honored his late mother in a simple and special way.
As the Art Gallery owns the collection, they allowed me to take the photo shown here; but due to copyright, I cannot reproduce the works in an easier to see form. You can view their page on William here:
Below is some of the text which was with the photos.
“In 1979 I had a bad case of hepatitis and I came back to the house of my mother to recuperate. My mother liked having me at home under her control. But I felt the life I had chosen to lead was not in Brisbane, and when I was half better, I went back to Sydney.”
“In his day your father was a very dashing man. He played saxophone in a dance band, and he wore silk shirts. He wouldn’t let me iron them, he did them himself. I couldn’t iron them good enough” I stared at my mother in disbelief. “He wasn’t like you know him.” She said.”
“Frances was my father’s favorite. She was the apple of his eye. I was my mother’s favorite child. There was a friction between my mother and my sister. They were both strong women.”
You can see how simple, but strong the message is. There are no angst-ridden emotional dissections, or lengthy one-sided speeches that could cause family arguments to erupt, or lose your interest amid the details. William got straight to the point. He chose the most important aspects of his family life and how they had affected him. That is always a safe place to focus on controversial topics: how they affected you, rather than who committed what sin.
So when you are writing, whatever your gender, use your freedom to be creative and original. Memoir doesn’t have to be a series of dates or plain paragraphs in a book. You can communicate through art, scrapbooking, photos, story quilts, music etc: it’s up to you. Any form of memoir should reflect your personality and interests in life. It should be representative of the main character: you.
It is your story to tell. Tell it your way.
You can find Cate online at:
CommuniCATE Blog: http://cateartios.wordpress.com/
Author Page at Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Cate-Russell-Cole/e/B0083MVRJK
Write Your Life Story Community: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Write-Your-Life-Story/173393852705651
Twitter: @cateartios
This photo of the collection has been reproduced for educational purposes with the kind permission of the Queensland Art Gallery, and is Copyright 2004 Queensland Art Gallery, Brisbane, Queensland, Australia. It may not be reproduced outside of this blog without first obtaining their permission.
Thank you, Cate for offering this unique alternative to telling our stories.
How about you? Have you ever considered telling your story through photos?
We’d love to hear from you. Please leave your comments below~
Announcement: Congratulations to book winners: Angie Walker won Poems That Come to Mind by Linda Austin and Dan Blank won Home Sweet Hardwood by Pat McKinzie. Enjoy!
Next Week:
4/29: “Interview with Susan Weidener“Memoir Author and Founder of The Women’s Writing Circle on the launch of The Slants of Light Anthology.
5/2: “Re-launching a Memoir in the Digital Book Age: A Guest Post by Memoir Author Laura Dennis”
Kathy, thank you so much for having me as a guest. From what I remember, I met you when I was feeling lost and alone among the fiction writers. It was such a relief to meet another memoir fan and to have you introduce me to so many other wonderful new friends.
I hope this post inspires your readers as much as William inspired all of us.
Best wishes,
Cate
Cate, It is my pleasure to feature you this week. I love how you share creative and unique ways to tell our stories, inspiring us all with”It’s your story. Tell it your way.” And thank you for reminding me how we met. It’s been a wonderful connection! Blessings, Kathy
Cate, fancy seeing you here at Kathy’s wonderful blog 🙂 This is a great article; it makes one realize that there are no limits to creativity. Those statements are simple yet powerful … very thoughtfully crafted sentences, and so telling of the family relationships. Thanks to both of you for giving us access to this unique form of storytelling.
Hi Belinda. So nice to see you here! I’m happy we have both been able to share Cate’s creative wisdom and insights on our blogs. I hope everyone will check out Cate’s guest post on marketing on your blog,too: http://myriteofpassage.wordpress.com/2013/04/20/a-to-z-blog-challenge-18-2/#comment-1914
Thanks so much for stopping by 🙂
Belinda, I haven’t seen you in simply ages! (Yesterday does feel like a long time ago…) 🙂 Thank you so much for your lovely comments and the opportunity to be on your blog.
William is exceptional. I have read a lot of highly emotional work in my time, but he cuts right through with a fairness and clarity that is outstanding. I had the opportunity to meet him and he is a gentle, beautiful man. There is a lot to learn from people like that. You work expect a society photographer to be of quite a different character, but he was a pleasant surprise.
Best wishes.
Hi Cate, I’m an admirer of artists who mix media to tell a story. This is a fine piece, and the photo exhibit looks engaging. Thanks for helping Cate share her story with us, Kathy.
Hi Terre, As an artist and a writer , you certainly know about “mixing media to tell a story” I’m glad you enjoyed Cate’s post and call to all of us to get creative in our approach. Your blog is a great example of “getting creative”:http://www.terrebritton.com/studio1/ and I hope everyone will check out your amazing artwork. Thanks for your comments. Great seeing you here, as always. 🙂
You are so kind, Kathy, thank you! I love stopping in for a great read and a chat. 🙂 And many thanks for mentioning my blog. I love hearing reactions from writers like yourself, Kathy, who are gifted in fresh, articulate responses because it always surprises me and injects new life in to my work. Have a lovely day~*
Terre, I thoroughly enjoy the interplay between art and writing that your artwork inspires. You have a lovely day too. 🙂
Thank you Terre! Story quilts are another of my favourites as are coffee table books, such as one written by Mary Wesley. I wrote a post on this a long time ago. http://cateartios.wordpress.com/2012/04/12/other-original-ways-of-representing-a-life/ I hope it provides you with even more inspiration.
Best wishes and happy writing!
Thank you Kathy and Kate for this superb post on “finding the bones” of story. Those bones better be solid, even if you go on to flesh them out with detailed description, and your example makes that crystal clear.
I saw an exhibit similar to this in Vermont a couple of years ago, and in addition to the blurb, they had headsets at each photo so you could listen to the author read a short story about it. Awesome! I’ve written several posts through the years about the interplay between words and images. With the right combination of words and pictures, 1=1 adds up to way more than 2!
Thanks,Sharon. What an interesting perspective: “the right combination of word and pictures,1=1 adds up the way more than 2.” And I would add, your new book The Heart and Craft of Writing Compelling Descriptions would certainly be an asset in writing those stories!
Hi Sharon, can you remember who did that exhibition? I’d love to see it. I also really like the idea of the head sets. That would be the perfect personalisation.
Thank you for your visit and comment. May there be much calcium in your writing bones. 🙂
Thank you, Cate, for such an inspiring story. I love the idea of a memoir in photos. I almost wrote my memoir in poem, but decided I had too much for to say. Instead I added poems and photos to round out the text. It goes to show there are many ways to tell our life stories.
Thanks again, Kathy, for bringout out such wonderful teachers.
Dear Madeline, The creative way you wove your poetry into your memoir Leaving the Hall Light On is another great example of telling our stories in our own unique way. I’m so glad you enjoyed Cate’s inspirational post. Thank you,as always for your ongoing support.
Hi Madeline, writing a life story in poetry would limit me too much too. I found someone on Twitter who were going to do their whole story in tweets – unsurprisingly, they never managed it. There are times when you just need more room!
Cheers and thank you for taking the time to comment.
How fascinating to learn one can “write” a memoir in a medium other than words on paper! I’d never thought about it like that before. I’ve been putting together Memory Books for my son for several years now. He might not fully appreciate them now, but one day, I feel sure, they’ll mean something special to him!
What a wonderful idea,Debbie, to create Memory Books for your son. Someday, they will be a treasure for him. See, you really are writing a memoir in your own way 🙂
Debbie, in January I put together a family tree for a friend, and wound up visiting the graves of people I never knew and am not related to – yet I wish I knew what their story was! They were Danish immigrants who had hard lives, from the facts we have been able to piece together. They would never have suspected that 100 years after their death, complete strangers would care and want to know.
Your story may go much further than you son and immediate family. The possibilities in this day of technology are endless. People will care, you never know who! It’s exciting.
Best wishes and keep working on those memory books.
Cate and Kathy, how wonderful to have two of my favorite people together in one place writing about creative ways to bring about one’s life story.
Cate, you have given us much to ponder and work with regarding the manner in which we reveal our stories to the world. This is a most unique exhibit and I would love to see it in person. The imaginative force that brought William to create essentially a story board with photos and words is amazing. Thanks so much for sharing it here today.
Kathy, thanks for inviting Cate, who is one of our most creative writing mentors on the planet! Cate has a knack for finding the innovative and unusual methods for enhancing our written work and in this case an entirely new format for passing the story along. I really enjoyed this post.
Hi Sherrey, I agree that Cate is “one of our most creative mentors on the planet.” I am fascinated by this unique way of telling our stories as well as by her call to “tell our stories in our own ways. I don’t think I’ll ever see a photograph in the same way again. I’m happy to hear you enjoyed Cate’s post. Thanks, as always for stopping by and sharing your thoughts!
Sherrey and Kathy, thank you! Those are very kind words.
I am just a rebel who likes to buck the status quo and find more creative and interesting ways to do things. It is people like William who can handle the emotions I can never fight as well, that I look up to. Fairness is hard to achieve!
Hi Kathy and Cate! Together you two have done a very good work to let us (the readers) know different ways to “write” a story. One of my friends has written the whole memoir in poetry form. I like to show the pictures as it captures the true images without much description–the photo says it all.
Thank you both,
smita
You’re very welcome, Smita. So happy to hear you enjoyed Cate’s inspirational guest post. Photos really do tell a story but adding a description to deepen the meaning of the story is brilliant. Thank you so much for stopping by and commenting.
Hi Smita, thank you for reading the post and leaving a comment. I have taught memoir writing for over ten years and love the various ways people communicate their story. I have seen cook books, story quilts, artworks etc. The possibilities are endless. It’s a great genre.
Best wishes.
A super post Kathy and Cate. I can’t remember who said, “A picture is worth a thousand words.” But when I started work on my memoir I pinned pictures of my parents up on a bulletin board in my studio. All I need to do is look at them and remember as Words flow.Their company keeps me on track and my perspective softens and is allowed to breathe. Photographs are like that.
Hi Joan, What a powerful description of the impact photos have had on your writing. Thank you for sharing. I’ve been thinking of that quote, “a picture is worth a thousand words” in relation to Cate’s post,too. William Yang’s exhibition sounds fascinating as he adds a brief description to each photo to bring each character and event alive. I never really thought of this as a way to convey a memoir but Cate’s post has certainly provokes interest, intrigue and connection to his story. I appreciate you stopping by and sharing your story. Thank you and best wishes with your writing!
Joan, that is really special and beautiful. I love reading that.
Thank you so much for your visit.
Keep creating!