Thanks to Sari Botton for inviting me to do this questionnaire. Check out her Substack Memoir Land. It’s terrific.

Allegra Huston is the author of Love Child: A Memoir of Family Lost and Found and co-author of Write What You Don't Know, the book of the Imaginative Storm method which she developed in partnership with James Navé. She has written three other books, along with numerous screenplays and journalism for publications in the US and the UK. Her short film Good Luck, Mr. Gorski, has become a cult favorite. She teaches an annual 5-day memoir workshop in Nova Scotia and writes a regular Substack newsletter, Imaginative Storm.

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How old are you, and for how long have you been writing?

I'm 60. I wrote a few travel articles in my 20s to help pay for my holidays—sparked by a visit to Graceland and the hilarity of the tour guide's spiel. I started writing screenplays in my 30s, and then some magazine articles. I wrote my memoir Love Child in my 40s, my novel A Stolen Summer in my early 50s.

The Imaginative Storm project, which is my focus for the rest of my life, really got going in 2020; that's when my creative collaborator James Navé and I started work on Write What You Don't Know.

What’s the title of your latest book, and when was it published?

Write What You Don't Know: 10 Steps to Writing with Confidence, Energy, and Flow, 2022, though I imagine you want to focus on Love Child: A Memoir of Family Lost and Found, 2009. I published the audiobook in 2019; I'm the voice reading it.

What number book is this for you?

Four and two halves:

Love Child: A Memoir of Family Lost and Found, 2009

A Stolen Summer (Say My Name in hardback), 2018

How to Edit and Be Edited, 2018

How to Read for an Audience (with James Navé), 2018

Write What You Don’t Know, (with James Navé), 2022

How do you categorize your book—as a memoir, memoir-in-essays, essay collection, creative nonfiction, graphic memoir, autofiction—and why?

Love Child is a straight-up memoir.

What is the “elevator pitch” for your book?

When I was four, my mother was killed in a car crash. After she died, I was introduced to my father: an intimidating man wreathed in cigar smoke, the film director John Huston. Then, when I was 12, I was told that Dad wasn't actually my father and I met my biological father, the British historian and media personality John Julius Norwich. Love Child is the story of my odyssey to discover in which family I belonged, and finally to pull my own family together around me—with the realization that the chains of DNA and marriage certificates don't define a family: love does.

Love Child is the story of my odyssey to discover in which family I belonged, and finally to pull my own family together around me—with the realization that the chains of DNA and marriage certificates don't define a family: love does.

What’s the back story of this book including your origin story as a writer? How did you become a writer, and how did this book come to be?

As a child, I toyed with the idea of becoming a writer because it meant I could live anywhere. The problem was, I didn't like writing. I was very self-critical and felt that I wasn't creative, especially compared to the artistic folks who surrounded me. Getting a degree in English Language and Literature from Oxford University lodged me firmly in the world of criticism and judgment—not creativity.

So, I went to work in an office and eventually became Editorial Director of the London publisher Weidenfeld & Nicolson. But as you will guess, working in an office didn't suit me, and to be honest I wasn't a good publisher. I was a good editor, but I wasn't good at the schmoozing and office politics that being a good publisher requires.

I decided I would write screenplays—knowing the odds against getting anything made, but confident that I'd beat them. After thirty years and many screenplays written, I still haven't. But I remain hopeful!

I wrote a piece about how lucky I feel to have two fathers (published in Harper's Bazaar UK as "Daddies' Girl"). After that, three people urged me to write a memoir, and though to begin with I thought I'd said everything I had to say in 1500 words, the idea simmered. I had thought of writing something about "going in search of my mother"—who was widely loved, and whom I didn't know. So, the two ideas coalesced and I began work on what would become Love Child.

Louis Faber does it again! This is probably his fifth 10-minute poem, generated in our Saturday writing group, that he has had accepted for publication.

Use our daily prompts for fun, for “writer training,” and to explore your past from unexpected angles. Giving your imagination toys to play with is the way to add energy and authenticity and originality to any story: real or fictional, poetry or prose.

Not only does the Imaginative Storm method bring joy and energy to your writing practice, it expands your awareness and broadens your range of compassion and understanding. We've been amazed to see people's faces light up as they tell us how it has enriched their life.

Incantations are prayerful, because they quieten the chatter of the rational mind—and that’s the goal of Imaginative Storm writing. When you quieten the rational mind, you free your imaginative intelligence.

Therapeutic writing doesn’t have to be all angst and drama. When you play with words using the Imaginative Storm method, they can lead you more lightly to insight, without the self-blame or guilt.

As long as your reader trusts you in the texture of what you’re writing, you can trust that your reader will follow where you lead them. You don’t have to spell things out; you can just let your scene unfurl and your reader will enjoy the feeling of understanding falling into place.

You might think you need an MFA to be considered a “serious” writer. You don’t! If you simply want to make your writing more powerful and memorable, try Imaginative Storm first!

Do you find it hard to believe that something written in just 10 minutes could be published? Yes it can! In the last week, Louis Faber has had two poems published which were written in 10 minutes in our Saturday writing group. In both cases, Lou didn’t even change a word!

“The 5-day workshop with Allegra was a fantastic, life-affirming experience. This workshop works for any level of writer, one getting a taste of what it is like to begin the life of a writer or for the accomplished practitioner …”

Just as you can play the piano or guitar for your own pleasure, you can write for your own pleasure. Hear your words the way you’d hear the notes you play. Even if they go no further, they have enriched your life and nourished your spirit.

In our five-day memoir workshop, yesterday, I set a prompt: to describe someone starting with their hands. Nine extraordinary, powerful, and varied pieces of writing were read out after the 10 minutes of writing.

These two pieces demonstrate the range of Imaginative Storm writing: from a closely observed, intense meditation on a memory, to a hop-skip-jump through puns and non sequiturs as a way of quieting an “octopus mind” …

So, when you get an idea for an arresting metaphor—an unexpected but somehow apt comparison—don’t stay on the threshold. Follow the metaphor as it illuminates and reveals perceptions that would otherwise be hidden. Head on down into the underworld, trusting that Virgil—let’s give the imagination that name, as Dante did—will guide you.

It hardly seems logical that a photograph of a strongman lifting a heavy weight, under a heavy sky, could lead to a poem about last love.

Setting a timer might seem like putting pressure on yourself, but in fact it’s the opposite! A 10-minute timer removes the pressure to write well, because how can you possibly write anything good in 10 minutes? …

Write by hand if you possibly can. First, because it unplugs you from the digital space. Second, because there’s some kind of hot-wire that happens between the imagination and the page …

The lovely thing about writing with a 10-minute timer is that you know you can’t paint a big picture, so you don’t worry about trying to get everything in. You have the luxury of focusing in on just one thought…

Danny was a treasured member of the Imaginative Storm Writing Group. In honor of his rich life, we’re sharing with you pieces written by other members of our group, as well as this poignant interview for Twice 5 Miles Radio recorded a few years back at a poetry festival in Asheville. It took place in James Navé’s car, nestled beneath an oak tree at the historic Riverside Cemetery, where literary icons Thomas Wolfe and O. Henry rest.