Not being a writer myself and having limited background in the art of creative writing, I thought it was a fantastic opportunity to see Alice Hoffman and learn more about her own approach to writing. Although I haven’t had time to read her recent adult novels, her teen book Green Angel was one of my favorite stories when I was younger. Needless to say, I learned much more about Alice Hoffman and writing in one hour than I expected.
One of the points that really stuck with me from her presentation was her adage: “You don’t need to just stick to writing what you know. You just need to write what you feel.” Although the message may seem obvious to many people, I found this especially enlightening because I was always told in my writing classes (at least in high school) that the best forms of writing are based on what you know. Thus, I became an expert at non-fiction writing because I was always writing from experience, and I believed that the only way my “voice” could come through to the page was to base my writing on tried and true experiences. This explained why I was never able to finish a lot of the short stories I started when I was younger because they were all fiction, and my imagination never seemed to live up to my ambitions. I’ve always admired fiction writers not only for their storytelling abilities, but also for their seemingly endless imagination. However, with a simple statement, Ms. Hoffman opened up another dimension in writing that I didn’t realize before. She explained that knowing how something feels is transferable to the characters in a story and brings out her voice. She described herself as an “escapist writer” who wants to escape from what they know rather than writing what they know; in this way, I think that writing about what you feel acts as a bridge from writing non-fiction to fiction. Ms. Hoffman also stated that this also explains why Wuthering Heights is one of her favorite novels because she believed that for Bronte to be able to write the story she did, Bronte must have been able to really feel the emotions she put her characters through, and in turn, Ms. Hoffman was able to feel those same emotions.
Ms. Hoffman’s preference for Wuthering Heights also points to her emphasis and interest in women’s issues and women’s knowledge, which she says is not always known because women in certain cultures don’t share the wisdom that they have. Her recent book, The Dovekeepers, highlights this by focusing on the voices of four different women and their journeys.
The part of the presentation that connected to this class was when she discussed the extensive research she had to do to write her teen book, Incantation, where she had to learn about the Spanish Inquisition. She stated that when she was in school, she never learned about this topic at all and she believes that if you don’t teach history, you won’t know history, which is true, especially with my own experience with Safe Area Gorazde. In high school, the Bosnian conflict was never touched upon when I was learning world history and I have not taken a class on the conflict in college, even though it is such an important part of world history and international relations and politics. My first brief exposure was through my study abroad program in Oxford, where I learned about England’s participation (or lack of) regarding the conflict. Sacco’s graphic novel and Ms. Hoffman’s on comment on historical knowledge and representation really made me concerned about the way history is taught and the subject(s) that are not even touched upon in high school and college especially since history can tell us so much about the present and the future. Right now, Ms. Hoffman is trying to learn about her own history, her family history, through research on her own grandfather’s book about his life and immigrant experience in order to prepare for her new book.
Overall, I really enjoyed listening to Ms. Hoffman’s presentation. She was humorous, witty, and obviously talented. Plus, I’m starting to learn a new way to write.
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