Writing Process What Writing Process

It's spring and I'm in love: with my own life. One of the very best things about that life is my friends. One of the very dearest in that category is Beverley Glick who asked me if I'd like to participate in a writing process blogging tour. It's an idea of genius; also an idea of engaging simplicity and depth. Each writer or blogger answers four set questions about their writing and then introduces three other people who do the same. You can read Beverley's contribution here; mine follows.

QUESTION 1: WHAT AM I WORKING ON?

I'm working on 'Walthamstow Women' which is the re-imagined story of my mother's childhood and adolescence at 27 Raglan Road, Walthamstow - and how that story plays out in my own life. At the age of six, my mother was the sole survivor of her family of four. Rescued from the orphanage by two aunts, she grew up at Raglan Road, but she never grew out of her sense of loss and abandonment. That sense marked and marred our relationship.

QUESTION 2: HOW DOES MY WORK DIFFER FROM OTHERS OF ITS GENRE?

I don't know that it does: mother/daughter relationships are fertile fodder in the realm of both fiction and biography. However, it's an act of healing as much as an act of writing, and this may be where one difference lies.

Another difference may well be that it's a mingling of family stories and imagination. It was Beverley who pointed out to me that I have a rich repertoire of family stories stretching back four generations on my father's side, but know very little about my mother's family. She spoke very rarely on the subject, so rarely in fact that I was 20 before I had my first glimpse into the dark days of her childhood.

QUESTION 3: WHY DO I WRITE WHAT I DO?

I'm writing 'Walthamstow Women' because I finally want to step into both sides of my genetic inheritance. I want my mother to sit alongside my father in my heart. That I am choosing to do this in my 60th year - the age at which my mother died - adds poignancy and significance.

Writing this story is a necessary part of healing my divided heart. Until very recently, I felt no compassion for my mother, even though I had an intellectual understanding that she only ever wanted the best for me - and sometimes her strategies were flawed, as parental strategies often are.

Working on my mother's story is moving me towards a place of compassion, a place from which I can tell the story as it deserves to be told. Had I tried to write it before, it would have been shot through with bitterness and resentment. It would have been akin to Nigel Slater's 'Toast'; great memoir though it is, my abiding memory of it is the author's resentment towards his step-mother who seems to have been guilty of nothing more than not being his natural mother.

QUESTION 4: HOW DOES MY WRITING PROCESS WORK?

During 35 years as a corporate copywriter, I cudgelled my brains to craft creative copy to order and often at very short notice. Now that I'm out of corporate life, I'm a lot kinder to myself. These days, I just allow my creative process to do its own thing in solitude. Of course it helps that I no longer have ridiculously short deadlines to meet.

The words come to me when they're ready, usually first thing in the morning after a good night's sleep. All I have to do is have a conversation with the creative part of myself before I go to sleep and trust that the words will be there fully formed when I wake up. Sometimes it's a challenge allowing the process to be as simple as it wants to be: my logical mind wants to butt in. Shame.

Here endeth my contribution to the tour, so let me introduce you to those who are taking over:

GILL HOW turns towards you, looks you in the eye and says "I help you grow". She is expert at turning her own story, together with its transformative moments, into insightful, incisive and heartfelt learning for us all. Collaborative, creative, motivated by mutual learning, she works with individuals and groups, inside and outside organisations, to surpass expectations through personal and professional growth, and from developing our skills with others. She is excited by the next phase of her life, what it might bring, and helps you want this for yourself, become alive and at your best too.

ANNABEL KAYE is a tango-dancing employment law specialist who writes professionally and creatively, and sometimes both at the same time. She helps clients fit together the jigsaw puzzle of human nature, the law, and commercial reality. As she didn't finish work until 8.00 pm on Maundy Thursday (yesterday), and is still tweeting and blogging about employment law matters today (Good Friday), this is my (Elaine's) attempt at encapsulating her uniqueness.

ADAM WELLS lived in Colombia and Spain in his youth. Returning to the UK, he spent 28 years gaining a diverse skill set through a career in high street banking, financial compensation and pharmaceutical project management. In 2011, he completed his 500 mile Camino de Santiago and discovered through the journey that his passion is to inspire people to step outside their comfort zones and confront their biggest fears. He founded Discover The Camino to motivate and help individuals to take their own Camino journey.