Old Friend from Far Away
Finished — 2025
Goldberg got me writing about my life in a systematic and expressive and healing way. She got me writing in longhand, which I haven’t done for “real” writing ever. I’d been typing my writing since the sci-fi story I wrote in primary school. Goldberg says, just try it. Get the hand moving. Now I prefer to start with the fountain pen in the notebook, for fiction and memoir both. The process of transcribing it creates a natural editing opportunity. I came to look forward to doing these “Goldberg variations”, following her quirky prompts on seemingly random topics, in order to get the autobiographical chemistry going. Once I found that I didn’t need the push anymore, I jumped to the DeSalvo and got systematic about it.