Late last night/very early this morning I was able to achieve a long-standing ambition and take part in a live webinar with American author Marion Roach Smith.

I’ve wanted to for ages but the time difference made it tricky in a pre-lockdown working world.  But with the ability to sleep in this morning if I needed to, I took the chance and signed up.

I’ve been a follower of Ms Smith’s for some time, bought a copy of her book on writing memoir over a year ago and am a regular listener to her QWERTY podcast.  So I’m quite familiar with the techniques she teaches for writing memoir.  But hearing her talking them through and explaining the examples more thoroughly helped them click, and she answered a couple of questions that’ve been niggling me for ages.

You know, there’s nothing like hearing an author you admire say, ‘That’s an excellent question, Alison!’  Even at my age!

I really feel I know where I’m going with my personal stories, now, after a significant period of feeling stuck.  I’ve already begun to put the learning into practice on my own memoir project and am looking forward to sharing the techniques in my writing classes.

Lockdown’s given me time to sort the snatches of personal stories I’ve written over the years into the rough outline of a book.