So beautiful, all of this! I love this description of your process, in journal writing; I've never been able to continue to write in a journal, and now maybe I will try once more, because just thinking about switching from 1st to 3rd person (and 2nd person too sometimes!) helps me, gives me permission to play inside and around the richness of this border between fiction and personal reality. It's magical, the way you embed your account of your own life in Paris, your sense of being lost sometimes (oh yes indeed! so relatable!), into this larger account both of how to approach the writing of memoir and fiction. AND of the history of Parc Monceau, including Monet's efforts to gain money through his art in this very park. Now I love this park even more. Thank you!
Thank you, Harriet! I love how you put it: "playing around the richness of this border between fiction and personal reality." And I remember you spent time in Monceau last time you were in Paris. If often felt to me like some kind of half-magic portal into a different world.
So beautiful, all of this! I love this description of your process, in journal writing; I've never been able to continue to write in a journal, and now maybe I will try once more, because just thinking about switching from 1st to 3rd person (and 2nd person too sometimes!) helps me, gives me permission to play inside and around the richness of this border between fiction and personal reality. It's magical, the way you embed your account of your own life in Paris, your sense of being lost sometimes (oh yes indeed! so relatable!), into this larger account both of how to approach the writing of memoir and fiction. AND of the history of Parc Monceau, including Monet's efforts to gain money through his art in this very park. Now I love this park even more. Thank you!
Thank you, Harriet! I love how you put it: "playing around the richness of this border between fiction and personal reality." And I remember you spent time in Monceau last time you were in Paris. If often felt to me like some kind of half-magic portal into a different world.