You Who?

Alan Titchmarsh, novelist, TV gardener and all round Renaissance man recently beat James Bond himself Sean Connery into second place when he was voted most fanciable man in a Saga survey of women over fifty. No mean feat, and he has just launched a writing competition that may interest several of you working on memoirs:

Alan Titchmarsh People’s Author Competition "We want strong, real life inspirational stories that you would like to share with the British public. The winner will receive a publishing deal with an advance of twenty thousand pounds. All you have to do to enter is write to us – tell us a bit about yourself, a few pages about your story and submit no more than five thousand words detailing some of the fascinating events that you’ve experienced". There's more about the televised competition on Alan's website - the prize is a contract with Orion, £20,000 advance and advice from his agent.

I'm rather tempted to have a go myself. Recently I wrote and recorded a radio piece 'Light Year' about growing up in Devon. I remember loving Laurie Lee's classic memoir 'Cider with Rosie' - little had changed in the remote part of the world I grew up in since he wrote the book. The ability to write about your own life lyrically, to present fact with the spin and drama of fiction is a real skill. It's not something I've tried and it could be an interesting challenge. The competition is open until June - why not have a go?

I was talking to one of the Dad's at school the other day (usual question: 'Any news about the book?' 'No, still waiting'). He's a marketing and sales whizz (cars not authors), but his take on selling 'yourself' as an author was interesting. He suggested selling authors is like selling anything else - find one unique angle and pitch that.

Maybe you're the same, but I feel like the children's character Worzel Gummige most days. He was a scarecrow with several heads - each head did one thing well. So you have your 'mummy' head, your 'business' head, your 'writer' head, and so on ... In terms of selling 'me' I don't know which works: the art angle (KLB, international art consultant, curated palaces, embassies - ie, what I was and what inspired the writing), or the 'real' me (KLB, juggler of parenting/writing/hound and home ... what I am). Art expert or working mother? Trying to see what is unique about you and the choices you've made in your life is enough to make anyone feel like a confused scarecrow ...

TODAY'S PROMPT: I re-read O'Donohue's 'Divine Beauty' during Easter. He wrote: 'once we begin to glimpse who we really are, many lonesome burdens and false images fall away; our feet find new freedom on the pastures of possibility'. In an article about slummy-mummies (painfully familiar), I read recently about the Hoffman Process - from the article it seems 'no one was allowed to discuss their real identity. For seven days we didn't utter a word about our children. We had to start conversations based on our life experiences, ideas and feelings'. It sounds like an interesting way to get in touch with who 'you' really are, not who you perceive yourself to be. Today, why not have a think about who you 'are'? How many heads do you have? If you were going to write the story of your life, what would you concentrate on?