I know, my latest blog post is from April 2022. I am still writing, just not online. 

Someone in the audience asked Hanya Yanagihara what she would have done differently when working on her first book A Little Life (that took many years to finish). She replied that she would have asked for professional feedback on her writing, instead of keeping her writing for herself. That day, I walked home from Bozar with a signed copy of To Paradise, encouraged to finally start my own writing project. 

I enrolled in the online course on how to write a personal story, by the London School of Journalism. For each writing assignment my tutor provides me with her professional (authors’) feedback. It is a long-term personal project that I am not expecting to finish anytime soon. Working through memories and my many boxes of dusty diaries since the age seven is both energising and exhausting, transformative and fixating. The journey is long but I am happy to finally be on it.

For several years I have been listening to the Moth, which is one of my inspirations. The storytellers have taught me that no memory is too insignificant to tell and so many experiences can be turned into relatable and captivating stories. Through storytelling, the Moth celebrates the diversity and commonality of human experience. It was founded by the novelist George Dawes Green, ‘who wanted to recreate in New York the feeling of sultry summer evenings in his native Georgia, when moths were attracted to the light on the porch where he and his friends would gather to spin spellbinding tales’. Since its launch in 1997, The Moth has presented thousands of stories told live. In 2023, the Moth published a great book for anyone that enjoys writing or works with communication. ‘How to Tell a Story’ draws on 25 years of experience from storytelling experts. 

My daily job, as a Public Affairs and Communication Director at the Society of Audiovisual Authors (SAA), representing the rights of screenwriters and directors in Europe, have made me attentive to the craft of filmmaking. Together, the SAA and the Moth have resulted in me asking myself some valuable questions that feed my writing.

If my personal story was a movie, what scenes would keep the audience glued to their seats? How can I describe them  in Technicolor? What are the very best and shiniest? In the movie of my life, what scenes do I never forget? The scenes are not always the most grand ones and the big moments of our lives do not immediately change us (in fact, we often realise it long later).

Besides the Moth podcasts and advice, I also very much enjoy reading autobiographical books and learning from others defining scenes in life. Some of the ones that stayed with me the longest are: 

• My Struggle (Karl Ove Knausgård, 6 volumes, 2009-2011)
• Why Be Happy When You Could Be Normal? (Jeanette Winters, 2011)
• Persepolis (Marjane Satrapi, 2000)
• Dreams from My Father (Barack Obama,1995)
• My Life (Golda Meir,1973)

Particularly in these times, books, movies and writing can be important sources of learning and processing of emotions, and on the other hand it can provide a pleasant refuge and escape when most needed.

Connect with me on LinkedIn and let me know your favourite books and inspiring storytellers!

Annica