Writing for Therapy

First session with Mick (not his real name) this week, and I'm nervous. A victim of a car crash some years ago, he suffered injuries to the brain and has been fighting to come to terms with his changed life ever since. He is desperate to tell his story as a memoir. I'm worried that he sees our writing sessions as a way of recovering lost memories - I don't have a magic formula for this.

In the end, it's ok - in fact it's a good first session where Mick chats, apparently at ease, and I record his words on my laptop so that later, I can rework this first draft material into memoir form. He tells the story of the crash; his epilepsy; his difficulties knowing that the first 21 years of his life have been largely wiped from memory. I'm anxious at the thought that he might leave our session upset all over again after all this reliving stuff.

Then, as I develop his words, searching for a narrative voice, I worry all over again that he won't like the reworked material; that he's imagined it one way and I've taken it in a different direction. This is not going to be easy. But we have a second session booked this week and in spite of my nerves, I'm looking forward to it. I know Mick can do this - I just hope that I'll be able, in my turn, to do his words justice - it has become very important that I do.

It's Haiku Time

Working with year 7 Charlotte this week and she asks for help with the dreaded haiku homework. Her first attempt:

The best time my fave,

Oh daffodils yay they are

Growing in the field.

Oh Geez. Haiku has never been my favourite - and what does a writer do when faced with 'fave' and 'yay'? But working from Charlotte's first draft, we were able to cut words that weren't doing any work; use powerful verbs and introduce my friend the semi-colon. Here's Charlotte's re-worked Winter haiku (I left her to work with those daffodils):

Days fall short; frost creeps -

leaves curl, crisped in ice. Snow packs,

hard as a nutshell.

Writing haiku demands discipline; economy. Every word needs to work - hard. This one uses assonance, personification, alliteration and a splendid simile (Charlotte's image). 

Addressed the prejudice - suddenly I'm a fan!

Carrotsmash!

Tada! At last (rebranding = hard work!) new website carrotsmash.co.uk is live. So:

Visit carrotsmash.co.uk for creative writing workshops and classes; proofreading services and English and Maths tuition.