One of my characters is based on someone who worked at a place I only worked for a short time, on a part-time contract. By the time I left I realized this person was underestimated and overlooked and my character is an appreciation of this person.
I read this after Thanksgiving day with two very different parts of my family. One part my husband keeps telling me I really must write about because the dynamics are just too fascinating. And I keep resisting. Which I know means I really need to find a way. Writing to understand--the digging and digging--that could get me there. Thank you for this, Jami. You always say just what I need to hear. ❤️
I write for my younger self. The one who believed she didn’t have stories worth telling because she wanted to write “unserious” genres. I write for my current self, not just as catharsis from the pressures of my work as a reproductive health lawyer, but as a space to unpack the systems I’m trying to dismantle, the messiness and labor of resistance, and the luminous potential of liberation. I write for people like me—communities with marginalized identities—who deserve to see themselves in fiction.
I’m the stranger always offering to take the photo for you. 😂 No one has ever refused (I say yes if the roles are reversed), so I’ll keep asking, but now will wonder if they said yes just to be polite.
Regarding audience & characters … I’m in the throes of Novel November, closing in on 40K (woot!) & definitely writing for me. The characters are exaggerated variations of family, friends & dogs I love.
This one got me thinking... about group photos and writing about me and me as fiction and friends I write about (in fiction as well as non), and how going from reality to the posed photo or in-person to the written person...oh so much to think about. Your posts often affect me that way, Jami. Thanks.
I'm always thinking about the reader when I write, even fiction. Although I think all writing is a reflection of the self on some level, whether consciously or not. Your take on how your photographs of others is an expression of how you feel about them is interesting. I hadn't thought much about that before but I immediately got it.
HI Jami, I think your photos show the connections you have between you and others, and that's how I feel about writing lately, that it's about the connections we make, or don't make, with others, whether they are brief passing moments or much longer. The connections can be real or imaginary, can be with people or other animals or things. I don't think writing would be possible without those connections. I think our subjectivity does not necessarily have to be a limitation, but the thing that allows the other - strangers, our strange, beautiful world - in.
I write for myself mostly as I’m writing memoir primarily. However I also thinking about the others who might be impacted by what I’m sharing about myself. Maybe they can open their hearts to themselves or others as they read my work.
One of my characters is based on someone who worked at a place I only worked for a short time, on a part-time contract. By the time I left I realized this person was underestimated and overlooked and my character is an appreciation of this person.
I read this after Thanksgiving day with two very different parts of my family. One part my husband keeps telling me I really must write about because the dynamics are just too fascinating. And I keep resisting. Which I know means I really need to find a way. Writing to understand--the digging and digging--that could get me there. Thank you for this, Jami. You always say just what I need to hear. ❤️
I write for my younger self. The one who believed she didn’t have stories worth telling because she wanted to write “unserious” genres. I write for my current self, not just as catharsis from the pressures of my work as a reproductive health lawyer, but as a space to unpack the systems I’m trying to dismantle, the messiness and labor of resistance, and the luminous potential of liberation. I write for people like me—communities with marginalized identities—who deserve to see themselves in fiction.
Love this Madeline!
I’m the stranger always offering to take the photo for you. 😂 No one has ever refused (I say yes if the roles are reversed), so I’ll keep asking, but now will wonder if they said yes just to be polite.
Regarding audience & characters … I’m in the throes of Novel November, closing in on 40K (woot!) & definitely writing for me. The characters are exaggerated variations of family, friends & dogs I love.
40k is SO good.
I definitely say no all the time now! Also I am absolutely the person who offers to do it, so whatever that says about me I don't even know!
This one got me thinking... about group photos and writing about me and me as fiction and friends I write about (in fiction as well as non), and how going from reality to the posed photo or in-person to the written person...oh so much to think about. Your posts often affect me that way, Jami. Thanks.
Love this. I get fussy about taking my own photos too. BTW, thanks for coming to the Miami Book Fair. It was great to hear you and Maris speak!
Ahhh thank you for being there!
I'm always thinking about the reader when I write, even fiction. Although I think all writing is a reflection of the self on some level, whether consciously or not. Your take on how your photographs of others is an expression of how you feel about them is interesting. I hadn't thought much about that before but I immediately got it.
HI Jami, I think your photos show the connections you have between you and others, and that's how I feel about writing lately, that it's about the connections we make, or don't make, with others, whether they are brief passing moments or much longer. The connections can be real or imaginary, can be with people or other animals or things. I don't think writing would be possible without those connections. I think our subjectivity does not necessarily have to be a limitation, but the thing that allows the other - strangers, our strange, beautiful world - in.
I write for myself mostly as I’m writing memoir primarily. However I also thinking about the others who might be impacted by what I’m sharing about myself. Maybe they can open their hearts to themselves or others as they read my work.