Lost a writer friend last week, a former school teacher, witty and energetic, a tennis player. We were in writing class together, where she worked on a mystery novel in which a college president was murdered - a common theme for some of us. But where to find the body? On a gurney in the anatomy lab, Mary C. decided.
She left the story unfinished. It was a compelling one, the kind where the characters come to life. I will miss them as well as Mary.
And I wondered – how many of you, out there, will leave behind an unfinished story? Maybe not a mystery. Your grandchildren will want to know about you, and their children will too, and you can write for them. Set the scene of your childhood, in Corpus or San Antonio or San Francisco. Or the small town or the ranch. How you lived, your childhood dreams, your schoolmates.
When I was working on my Border novel I was given access to some old family papers, stories of living there in the 1900’s. Some typewritten, some by hand, and some old photos. Those things gave me a sense of surviving there a hundred years ago.
It’s easy to do today, with these marvelous computers. Put seat of pants in seat of chair. Write! Once you start spilling it out, it will flow. Your early memories. First day at school. First date? First car.
Tell your story. Do it now. Please!
Dac Crossley
April 25, 2013
“The first 40 years of life give us the text; the next 30 supply the commentary on it.” – Arthur Schopenhauer.