ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses 'creative' uses of analogy and selective representation in life writing contributed to the project between 2010 and 2013. It emphasises the importance of project organisers being flexible with regard to both the forms of life writing they ask for, and also the spaces for exchange they introduce. The chapter shows how life writing both produces spaces and contests those imposed by others. The chapter also demonstrates how the spaces constructed are shaped by the forms of life writing used, and also by the spatial relations between participants. Writing on the Strandlines website, or coming to a meeting, irrespective of what was said, was already to begin constructing spaces and selves. Strandlines contributions typically include an unusual encounter. The characters described are also often eccentric –a term with spatial resonances. Strandlines is one of many digital archives collecting life writing relating to local places set up in the UK in recent years.
