Write Your Life
My Story - Your Story
I am a compulsive writer, former filmmaker, dancer, and arts manager. Now working freelance as a Writer and Creative Tutor www.anitabelli.com @anitabellibooks
So, how much do you want to know about me? Reading my fiction is probably the best way to find out who I really am, but here is a brief synopsis followed by a much longer plot. And some hints about how you can Write Your Life
So, how much do you want to know about me? Reading my fiction is probably the best way to find out who I really am, but here is a brief synopsis followed by a much longer plot. And some hints about how you can Write Your Life
Brief Synopsis
This is the overview or broad sketch of the story
I was born in Manchester, attended Adelphi House Grammar School FCJ, then Hull University. Moved to Camden Town to study at London Contemporary Dance School where I met Charlie, who became my lifelong soul-mate and husband. Years of being a dancer, working in Theatre, in London, and then the film bug became contagious and I went to Film School where I earned an Oscar nomination. Charlie and I married and had 2 children and I needed a proper job so I went back to The Place, now my soul home and developed dance film programmes and taught an MA at London Contemporary Dance School . We moved out of London to Essex where I became Director of a Media Arts Organisation before we moved to Spain.... and back again. We now have a growing family with grandchildren and in-laws.
There is no ending yet. The writing journey continues with like minded travellers.
This is the overview or broad sketch of the story
I was born in Manchester, attended Adelphi House Grammar School FCJ, then Hull University. Moved to Camden Town to study at London Contemporary Dance School where I met Charlie, who became my lifelong soul-mate and husband. Years of being a dancer, working in Theatre, in London, and then the film bug became contagious and I went to Film School where I earned an Oscar nomination. Charlie and I married and had 2 children and I needed a proper job so I went back to The Place, now my soul home and developed dance film programmes and taught an MA at London Contemporary Dance School . We moved out of London to Essex where I became Director of a Media Arts Organisation before we moved to Spain.... and back again. We now have a growing family with grandchildren and in-laws.
There is no ending yet. The writing journey continues with like minded travellers.
Write a brief SYNOPSIS of your life in no more than 250 words
Decide the focus for your story: is it about your childhood, family, career, hobby or something else?
This brief version of My Story focusses on 'My Life as a Writer'
Decide the focus for your story: is it about your childhood, family, career, hobby or something else?
This brief version of My Story focusses on 'My Life as a Writer'
The Plot
This is where we develop a structure for your life story. Be honest. Tell it as it felt to you. It may not be how other's remember it, but it is YOUR story. You can encourage them to tell theirs.... but that's another story
This is where we develop a structure for your life story. Be honest. Tell it as it felt to you. It may not be how other's remember it, but it is YOUR story. You can encourage them to tell theirs.... but that's another story
The Backstory
Ok so I know you are not supposed to start with the backstory but a) this is not fiction b) you should always start with a dramatic moment. I think this is a good start:
'When dynamite is lobbed into the middle of your life, it demands a reaction'
'Watermelon Pie: Slices of Andalucia' by Anita Belli
Ok so I know you are not supposed to start with the backstory but a) this is not fiction b) you should always start with a dramatic moment. I think this is a good start:
'When dynamite is lobbed into the middle of your life, it demands a reaction'
'Watermelon Pie: Slices of Andalucia' by Anita Belli
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I was born in Manchester, well an overspill suburb of Salford, really. My father, Rocco was Italian, my mother, Phyllis, half Welsh.
Sadly this doesn’t mean that I can sing although both my sisters and some of my brothers can hold a tune. Tony sang in a band and taught himself instruments. I learned to play violin (badly) but still hack out the odd Christmas carol when I absolutely have to. |
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At school, I wrote stories and poems which The Manchester Evening News
published, giving me a very early belief that people would want to read what I wrote. When I said; ‘I want to be a writer when I grow up,’ I was told, by someone (who remains nameless and always will on these pages) ‘Don’t be silly luv, they’ve got people who do that sort of thing...’ I believed them, as children do. |
School was an old fashioned 70’s Grammar school in Salford before it became trendy – Salford that is, not my school. My school never was trendy and sadly is no more – closed down when Comprehensives were introduced.... but don’t get me started on that – the ladder of opportunity has well and truly been pulled up......
Characters
I am the 5th of 7 children which is an ideal place to be. I got lots of older siblings to take the heat and a little brother and sister to play with / care for / boss about. (I like to tick all the boxes). A fairly noisy household, full of opinionated and stroppy people, all likely to sue if I say much more.... or at least be a bit miffed...
Rocco went blind in November 1961 but still managed to raise children – he taught me to spell and do sums in all the time I was off school as a pathetically asthmatic child. (I got over it though – the tendency to bunk off school at the drop of an inhaler, not the spelling or sums.) He also cooked so I learned to cater for a family of nine from the age of about 12 years old. All comes in handy eventually, like catering for writers at The Creative Casa. (www.thecreativecasa.com)
I am the 5th of 7 children which is an ideal place to be. I got lots of older siblings to take the heat and a little brother and sister to play with / care for / boss about. (I like to tick all the boxes). A fairly noisy household, full of opinionated and stroppy people, all likely to sue if I say much more.... or at least be a bit miffed...
Rocco went blind in November 1961 but still managed to raise children – he taught me to spell and do sums in all the time I was off school as a pathetically asthmatic child. (I got over it though – the tendency to bunk off school at the drop of an inhaler, not the spelling or sums.) He also cooked so I learned to cater for a family of nine from the age of about 12 years old. All comes in handy eventually, like catering for writers at The Creative Casa. (www.thecreativecasa.com)
Write a list of the people in your life who would make your story interesting.
Write one anecdote for each which would add humour, drama or a cliff hanger to your story
Write one anecdote for each which would add humour, drama or a cliff hanger to your story
The Plot Thickens
List 3 key events in your life which you would consider to be
'life changing' or 'life affirming'
List 3 key events in your life which you would consider to be
'life changing' or 'life affirming'
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The University of Hull in the mid 70’s, had a Drama Dept full of interesting people and ideas which I had never encountered before, like the one which said ‘You will never get anywhere with a Manchester Accent’, so that was the first of my reincarnations.
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The second was as a filmmaker: I discovered super8mm and made endless reels of little films and was captivated by images and also by writing short film scripts. I was like a butterfly starved of creative nectar; it didn’t exist in Salford in the 70’s, at least not where I grew up.
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London Contemporary Dance Theatre pirouetted magnificently into my life with a residency in the Drama Department and performances at the University Theatre.... WOW!
This was something I had never seen before and it blew me away . |
Hull University Drama Department
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The Letter Writer by Anita Belli
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London Contemporary Dance Theatre
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So I set about the daunting task of going to study at The Place in London: so called because it was the only place to be in the late seventies: zero to hero in three years? I liked a challenge – I was from Manchester – and three years later, I won a fully funded place at The Place.... and so began my complete move away from writing and into non verbal communication, and the asthma improved with the physical exertion. No more bunking off school. Besides, I was at The Place. Who'd want to?
But the filmmaking wouldn’t go away so after many years of hurting muscles, damaged knees and shifting sand, I went to Film School – in London’s Covent Garden, so that I could still do classes at Pineapple. I had an amazing time making proper films in 16mm and 35mm colour and was shortlisted for a (student) Oscar at the Academy of Motion Pictures, Arts and Sciences, to give it its full title.
More importantly, I started to write again and then I couldn’t stop; mostly short film scripts and ideas... but I was writing.... and I began the notebook habit.... (you will see pics of stacks of notebooks dotted around these pages. I write every morning, starting with Julia Cameron’s Morning Pages and taking it from there....
But the filmmaking wouldn’t go away so after many years of hurting muscles, damaged knees and shifting sand, I went to Film School – in London’s Covent Garden, so that I could still do classes at Pineapple. I had an amazing time making proper films in 16mm and 35mm colour and was shortlisted for a (student) Oscar at the Academy of Motion Pictures, Arts and Sciences, to give it its full title.
More importantly, I started to write again and then I couldn’t stop; mostly short film scripts and ideas... but I was writing.... and I began the notebook habit.... (you will see pics of stacks of notebooks dotted around these pages. I write every morning, starting with Julia Cameron’s Morning Pages and taking it from there....
By this time I had met Charlie Peacock whom I instantly recognised as my soul-mate: I will tell that tale another time and he crops up, disguised, in my fiction all the time.
We married and had two amazing children who changed our lives forever.
I began to live in the real world and not in the ‘Arts world’. After a few years of manipulating a double buggy up Camden High Street on market day to buy bread and milk, we decided that we could buy ourselves more space, a bit of tranquillity and maybe some family time by moving out of London.
We married and had two amazing children who changed our lives forever.
I began to live in the real world and not in the ‘Arts world’. After a few years of manipulating a double buggy up Camden High Street on market day to buy bread and milk, we decided that we could buy ourselves more space, a bit of tranquillity and maybe some family time by moving out of London.
I developed Dance and Film programmes at The Place: my soul-home, and after several years, as the children turned from babies into children, I developed and taught an MA in making dance for the screen. I had always wanted to live by the sea and write books, so this was the opportunity: we moved to the Essex Sunshine Coast where the children could roam free and run around; I could commute part time and write.....
A few years later and tired of commuting, I took a job running a Media Centre in Essex which was all about working in the community, not about working with artists. Time passed. We got a dog to look after the two children – (he was an old English sheepdog,) and we lived in a house built from ships timbers around 450 years earlier.
A few years later and tired of commuting, I took a job running a Media Centre in Essex which was all about working in the community, not about working with artists. Time passed. We got a dog to look after the two children – (he was an old English sheepdog,) and we lived in a house built from ships timbers around 450 years earlier.
Plot twists
Write about an event in your life which was unexpected, unforeseen or simply unusual.
How did it come about?
How did it turn out?
Write about an event in your life which was unexpected, unforeseen or simply unusual.
How did it come about?
How did it turn out?
The Creative Casa by Catherine Orbach
Plot Twist
Charlie said one day that he had always wanted to go back to Spain. He began to Google 'Houses in Spain'. He found a nice place and went out to have a look and came back and said he had bought it; so I gifted myself a month of Sundays and we took a long vacation.... I loved the village of Castell de Ferro and we began to think that we could live here. There was an International school for the children... So we moved – not all of us and not for long but a love affair with Spain developed.
I lost my heart in Andalucía and pawned my soul:
Coming soon: 'The Ties That Bind' by Anita Belli
'Tales From The Creative Casa' by Anita Belli
Charlie said one day that he had always wanted to go back to Spain. He began to Google 'Houses in Spain'. He found a nice place and went out to have a look and came back and said he had bought it; so I gifted myself a month of Sundays and we took a long vacation.... I loved the village of Castell de Ferro and we began to think that we could live here. There was an International school for the children... So we moved – not all of us and not for long but a love affair with Spain developed.
I lost my heart in Andalucía and pawned my soul:
Coming soon: 'The Ties That Bind' by Anita Belli
'Tales From The Creative Casa' by Anita Belli
Cliff Hanger
Life is rarely served up to us in neat little parcels
Write about an event, incident or happening in you life which awaits conclusion
What are your hopes and fears?
How do you want it to turn out
Life is rarely served up to us in neat little parcels
Write about an event, incident or happening in you life which awaits conclusion
What are your hopes and fears?
How do you want it to turn out
Cliff Hangers
When we returned to the UK, I took a job as a Creative Director, funded by Arts Council England, in an attempt to irrigate the cultural desert around my home in North Essex; I learned a lot, developed a creative learning
programme and returned to Spain some years later to live a creative life when the Children were grown up. The Creative Casa was born: and inadvertently timed to coincide with global economic meltdown – Spain’s economy especially nose dived: but we had fun for a while: I spent a year writing and working with writers at www.thecreativecasa.com
When we returned to the UK, I took a job as a Creative Director, funded by Arts Council England, in an attempt to irrigate the cultural desert around my home in North Essex; I learned a lot, developed a creative learning
programme and returned to Spain some years later to live a creative life when the Children were grown up. The Creative Casa was born: and inadvertently timed to coincide with global economic meltdown – Spain’s economy especially nose dived: but we had fun for a while: I spent a year writing and working with writers at www.thecreativecasa.com
Endings
Need to satisfy the reader
Should always be appropriate to what has gone before
They aren't always happy but should tie up loose ends,
(except where a 'cliff hanger' has perhaps set up a sequel?)
Try to tie it back to where you started from and be optimistic about the future
Need to satisfy the reader
Should always be appropriate to what has gone before
They aren't always happy but should tie up loose ends,
(except where a 'cliff hanger' has perhaps set up a sequel?)
Try to tie it back to where you started from and be optimistic about the future
With our son, Eddie
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The End
We became grandparents and the goal posts moved again, the sands shifted and umbilical whiplash bounced us back to the UK.... where I am still writing. Another blank page, a new chapter or maybe a sequel awaits? I continue to write compulsively and have, inadvertently become one of those people ‘who do that sort of thing...’ |
25 years later, with our son's daughter Matilda
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Top Tips for WRITING YOUR LIFE
1. Decide the FORMAT: structure and plot: sort and organise your ideas
2. How much do you want to say? How much do you have to say? Each section could be a paragraph or a chapter.
3. Set Boundaries: What do you want to include / leave outside the door.
4. Gathering information: sorting and organising material
5. Keep a Diary
6. Keep a notebook to write things down as you remember
7. Make connections and links
8. Ask friends and family
Join me and like minded people for a Write Your Life Workshop to get you started
1. Decide the FORMAT: structure and plot: sort and organise your ideas
2. How much do you want to say? How much do you have to say? Each section could be a paragraph or a chapter.
3. Set Boundaries: What do you want to include / leave outside the door.
4. Gathering information: sorting and organising material
5. Keep a Diary
6. Keep a notebook to write things down as you remember
7. Make connections and links
8. Ask friends and family
Join me and like minded people for a Write Your Life Workshop to get you started