A review of an online memoir masterclass with Alice Vincent in association with Arvon at Home
On weaving your own story with others.
For several years, I’ve been delving into the history of the Cumbrian village I call home for “I live in the countryside now,” the newsletter and memoir I’m writing here on Substack. If I’ve got a big question, it’s probably this: Can knowing a place engender a greater respect for where we live, and for each other? That said, I’m compelled to research the history of the place at different times, for different reasons. Anyhow, many of the historical characters who lived here have got under my skin. I’ve got to know them by writing about them, sometimes by melding fact with fiction.
On Tuesday evening this week I took part in a two-hour masterclass with
1 in association with Arvon at Home2: Weaving your own stories with others.I was curious how I might take, say, the life of a Victorian lay-preacher and farmer, Mark, and weave what I know about him into my own experiences. Then there’s Esther, a young widow who farmed, and ran a pub. As for Beatrice, who may or may not have lived in the village in the twelfth century: you might well imagine that researching, and knowing, the lives of medieval women is notoriously challenging.
After introductions, Alice talked about making peace with our insecurities. Memoirists, women especially, have an inherent distrust of the importance of our stories. Notwithstanding, wouldn’t us writers feel worried if we didn’t ask ourselves those questions every day?
Alice’s masterclass offered four short exercises. Since none of the participants were visible to each other during the session (available for one week on replay for those who signed up,) the pressure was off.
In the first exercise, Alice asked us to home in on our writing and look for three to eight themes that revealed themselves. There would be themes that had already emerged, and, hopefully, new themes too.
Here’s what I wrote (my notes below are unabridged, and in no particular order.)
Home / Growing/Thriving (as a person and growing a garden)
Motherhood in Midlife / Family
Social History
Friendships / Community
Alice read an extract from Jamaica Kincaid’s3 essay Homemaking: Moving into the perfect house—and sharing it with the memories of the family who lived there before. The essay appeared in The New Yorker, October 1995.4
And so to our second exercise. What passages in Jamaica Kincaid’s essay, asked Alice, made us want to find out more? What resonated, reminding us of our own experiences? I set aside three paragraphs, could have bookmarked more. Here’s the extract that, for me, jumped out the most.
“Yes, that price will do very well as long as I can take my Festiva Maxima, for not only are they the most beautiful of peonies but they are the first flowers I isolated and became attached to, at the moment I became a gardener.”
Jamaica Kincaid
What followed was an interesting, easy conversation, during which Alice talked about the process of researching and writing her second book, Why Women Grow: Stories of soil, sisterhood and survival.5 And, after a tea break, we discussed how, searching for the universal truths in our own experiences and writing, we can locate it in another writer’s work, in a painting, a poem… Alice talked, too, about “doing something else entirely,” visiting a gallery, lunch with a friend. We don’t know when inspiration will strike; and what might resound with us long after the event.
The third exercise: Alice invited us to spend seven minutes “free writing,” based on the words which had resonated in Jamaica Kincaid’s essay.
In the hours before I become a gardener, I am in my grandfather’s greenhouse.
Crouching on my heels, I take a leaf off one of the tomato plants. I inhale the tang, cannot get enough of it. When I open my eyes, I see a frog, pick it up, cover one hand with the other. I walk around the back of the greenhouse, to the metal water butt that’s the same height as me, and drop the frog into the water.
At the table that evening, I tell Grandpa what I’ve done. I watch him put down his knife and fork, take a napkin, wipe his mouth.
“Why did you do that?” he says.
“Because he lives in the water. And he was eating your tomatoes.”
As was his way when thinking, Grandpa took his pipe, packed it with tobacco. “Did you see this frog eating the tomatoes?”
“No.”
“That frog,” he said, “eats aphids and whitefly and mites. The tiny creatures that I do not want in our greenhouse. But no more. The frog will have drowned. No way for it to get out.”
“When it comes to connection, we need facts to tether our interpretation. But we need interpretation to enable our readers to gain greater meaning from our stories.”
Alice Vincent.
The fourth and final exercise. If I’ve understood this right, we’d to connect the passage we’d written with the passage from Jamaica Kincaid’s essay that had inspired us. A weaving in. And a useful exercise which, Alice reminded us, is about process, not product.
The masterclass got me thinking of how I’m weaving Luke, Esther, and Bridget’s stories into my memoir, as well as opening up new ideas about that process.
As expected, the two hours spent with Alice and, representing Arvon at Home, Natasha Carlish, went all too quickly. Alice was easygoing and natural, as ever. I feel I benefitted from the course, that it gave me plenty to think about. The masterclass was good value for money (the masterclasses at the time of writing are £40 for two hours, £20 concessions.) Here’s hoping Alice will consider more of the same in future. Thanks, Alice. X
Weaving your story with others was delivered via Zoom webinar, “so you can take the session at your own pace, without the pressure of having your video or camera on. Sessions are also recorded so if you are unable to attend live, you will have access to the recording for a month afterwards.”6
Note: As if you didn’t know already but
and have a podcast called In Haste. “This is where we talk about how great books really get written. Join us in exploring how to be better readers and better writers.A word about Intellectual Property
I hope you find my review useful, especially if you’re considering a course yourself, as participant or tutor.
I have written this review with Alice’s blessing. By giving you an overview of the course, I ask that you respect the Intellectual Property of Alice Vincent, who created the course material and delivered the online masterclass Weaving your own story with others; and the Intellectual Property of Arvon at Home who facilitated the masterclass. Thank you.
Lay it on the line is a new section on my Substack “I live in the countryside now.”
Reviews of books, writing classes, and what I'm reading here on Substack. Simple, straightforward reviews, no bull.
Subscribe for free to Lay it on the line and “I live in the countryside now,” none of what I write is behind a paywall. At some point down the line, if what I’m writing resonates with you, and you want to subscribe with a financial pledge, hit the button and look at your options to pay monthly or annually to support my writing during the course of 2024.
“Alice Vincent is a writer, broadcaster and multi-platform storyteller fascinated by the often-overlooked parts of life. Her books include the bestselling Why Women Grow: Stories of Soil, Sisterhood and Survival, which was shortlisted in the 2023 Books Are My Bag Readers Awards and Rootbound, Rewilding a Life. Both were longlisted for the Wainwright Prize.” Online at: <https://www.alicevincent.co.uk/>; accessed Thursday 08 February 2024
“Arvon's online programme of activities, Arvon at Home, will help you find inspiration and keep writing, no matter the setting. Writing Weeks, Evening Courses, Masterclasses, How I Write sessions and Arvon 1-1s are all accessible from the comfort of your sofa.” Online at: <https://www.arvon.org/arvon-at-home/>; accessed Thursday 08 February 2024
“Jamaica Kincaid was born Elaine Potter Richardson on Antigua in 1949.” Online at:<https://literature.britishcouncil.org/writer/jamaica-kincaid>; accessed Thursday 08 February 2024
“From ten of my house’s thirty windows I can see a mountain called Mt. Anthony.” You can read Jamaica Kincaid’s essay in full online at: <https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/1995/10/16/homemaking>; accessed Thursday 08 February 2024
Why Women Grow: Stories of Soil, Sisterhood and Survival by Alice Vincent. Available to purchase via bookshop.org <https://uk.bookshop.org/p/books/why-women-grow-stories-of-soil-sisterhood-and-survival-alice-vincent/7341755>; accessed Thursday 08 February 2024