Writing Archives : Page 3 of 3 : Vig Gleeson

The Captain’s Island

Dear Ones,

[SEPTEMBER 2018] You may know, my father, The Captain, died in July and I went to Norway for his . . . . . . . – no, I didn’t just go for the funeral or to bury him, I went to find him or to find something I’ve lost. And I did. I write about it in Speak #TRUTH Lies.

‘The Captain’s Island,’ stands out as a good contender for the first chapter of the book. It starts as I arrive at his island on the ferry. My brother, Ruby and I had been driving all day from Ålesund. It was hot and the sea breeze felt cooling.

I hadn’t seen him in 14 years, which was the last time I visited Atløy, the island where he lived for 17 years.

[UPDATE AUGUST 2023] And now, is published and you can buy a copy right here.

(more…)

Karl Ove’s Struggle

I’m reading ‘Some Rain Must Fall’ by my fellow countryman and memoirist Karl Ove Knugsgaard at the moment.

It starts with his student year at the Writing Academy in Bergen. The same year I studied Graphic Design in Stavanger. This is the 5^th book and his writing, which dazzled me from the start, hugely improves with each book. I feel like I’m growing as a writer with him. I started with the first book in his ‘My Struggle’ series, which I don’t necessarily think have to be read in chronological order. I couldn’t get book 3 but didn’t feel I had missed anything when I read book 4, which was the book I read on The Captain’s Island.

(more…)

Reliving The Hardest Parts of Our Past

One of the hardest chapters for me to write was about what happened in a blue Volvo when I was about 5.

It’s one of those #metoo stories I never told.

Buried in my subconscious, it first raise it’s ugly head, when in my teens, my boyfriend and I played at having sex.

When authors talk about it taking a year, or more, to write a book, they’re not wrong, For it’s stories like these that slows us down.

(more…)

The Shitty First Draft

Donna’s Book on Fire module on the Shitty First Draft really pissed me off.

I know that every time I have a strong emotion around something, especially the kind of resistance I felt against the Shitty First Draft lesson – there’s something juicy in it for me to learn.

I had to give this lesson a lot of time to percolate in my mind before I arrived at my own truth.

(more…)