Kia ora, I like moving furniture about, changing the look of a room, trying out different placements of chairs, side tables, books, sometimes just putting a chair in a different place does the trick. I especially like doing it before New Year.
I always like what I’ve done when I’ve finished but that doesn’t mean it will last forever. The need to move things around comes on gradually at first – I think maybe that chair/table/collection of ornaments/painting, would look better somewhere else? A few weeks will go by and I keep looking at whichever object it is until finally one day I wake up and know this is the day.
Naturally one move has a domino effect and everything else has to be moved slightly or more dramatically taken right out to cope with the change.
Sometimes I decide its time to send the books or furniture to a new home and once I’ve done the hard work of moving them into the spare room (the first stage of the journey to somewhere else) I always feel a sense of freedom. I don’t know how the spare room feels. It must breathe a sigh of relief when it get a brisk going over just before Christmas, fresh sheets on the bed, a thorough vacuum, everything looking welcoming and uncluttered.
Naturally that only lasts until a few minutes after the last visitor has gone. From that moment the spare room sinks back into its usual role of storing house for any unwanted furniture, books, or anything else, so that getting through to the wardrobe where I keep the vacuum cleaner becomes a bit of an obstacle course.
I feel very lucky I don’t have any strong feelings for these things. I did when I bought them, especially the books which I craved and loved possessing. I wanted them so much I didn’t take any notice of the criticism I got for buying books instead of a new winter jacket. That was a long time ago and perhaps the feeling of ownership, the enjoyment of reading and re-reading them, means that I’ve had what I wanted from them and now I can give them away without regrets.
I never sell books or anything else I’ve loved – I think this book/chair/table has given me a lot, it owes me nothing and now hopefully someone else will have the same good times I had from the book, table, chairs, whatever.
I always start a new project on New Year’s Day even if I only write a sentence or two. I’m not exactly sure why it matters to me or why I feel so intent on starting it on this particular day but I go with what has become a ritual – this time its a rewrite of my Your Life, Your Story: A Practical Guide to writing your memoir. It sold out about three years or so ago and I’ve had enquiries but its probably the solid orders which have spurred me into action. This is a guide for people who want to write their own life story for friends and family and perhaps more importantly, for themselves.
I want to rewrite Your Life, Your Story instead of issuing it as is for a number of reasons. It needs updating to include modern technology of course – so many more people have access to computers than they did when it was first published about ten years ago but also I know more about writing memoir and about research and I want to pass that on. The people who want to write these memoir have not usually written anything of any length before other than letters so its all new. They are spurred on either by illness and the knowledge that time has become shorter, or by the realisation that their family knows nothing about their life or more likely because someone in their family has died and they think oh I wish I knew more about their life – maybe I should make sure I leave something for my own family and friends.
I’ll be still carrying on with the writing of No Good Crying though, the third novel in the Vogel Place trilogy and I have some teaching to do next year as well so its only sensible to get the memoir guide rewrite done in January.
I have a few copies of those kind of memoir and they make wonderful reading. Some have been printed by a printing firm, others computer produced an there is an occasional one entirely written by hand, all have the lovely quality of being written from the desire to tell someone else their story. And that’s what writing’s about isn’t it? Telling someone else a story. These particular ones have all been received with jubilation by the families and friends of the writers and that has been very satisfying.
I wish you all a very happy 2014, every success (whatever that means to you), lots of fun with friends, lots of writing and reading, arohanui ki a koutou, Renée
