S11E6 The Three Lives of Cate Kay: Kate Fagan’s multi-layered trip into fiction

“ I put that memoir out  and my mum in particular was really upset and she came to me and was like, that's not how I remember that happening.” ~Kate Fagan

Writing a memoir is a tricky business - you may think writing about your own life is a straightforward process of telling fact after fact. The trouble is, very rarely do the people in your life recall events the same way you do. There are discrepancies in memory and emotion that are often impossible to unravel.

That’s the challenge Kate Fagan ran into when she released her memoir, The Reappearing Act. And it’s a real-life conversation with her parents that served as the inspiration for her first foray into fiction writing. Kate has been a non-fiction writer for a long time, so this is a big pivot for her.

The Three Lives of Cate Kay is the fictional memoir of a mysterious author, who’s lived under three different names in her life. There are several layers to the narrative, as the memoir is interwoven with chapters narrated by people who knew her in her different “lives”. During this conversation, Kate explains why she chose this complex - and highly effective - narrative strategy.

In this episode, you will learn:

• How to play to your strengths when making a big pivot in your writing career
• How to get comfortable ditching old projects and starting from scratch
• Why liminal space is so important - and how audiences love working stuff out for themselves!

Find out more about Kate here.

Your host is inkjockey founder Mark Heywood.

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