You have a memoir to write—a true story seized from the beautiful chaos of everyday life. The question you face now is how to uncover its shape and give it full-throated voice, the ability to sing. Do you just start at the beginning and write through to the end? What is the beginning, anyway? And once you’ve finally got moving, how do you keep going?

This course is for beginning memoirists. It introduces students to the basics of memoir writing, including scene, structure, and narrative arc. Classes combine lecture, discussion, and short exercises that we will write on the spot and share with the group, reading aloud. There will also be some very short take-home assignments, to keep you thinking between classes. And I will meet with each student for a conference outside of class to discuss your project in greater depth. The goal is to help you kickstart your memoir so that you can begin making progress as soon as you return home.

You will learn how to conceptualize and plan a book-length memoir. This includes how to discover and explore your material by “writing outside the story”; how to outline, organize, and plan; how to do research; how to think about conflict, plot, structure, and theme; how to write scenes; and how to create a writing schedule and set goals.

You will take home: a “conflict statement” describing the conflict at the heart of the narrative; a plot outline; a scene list; and character arcs for your protagonist and other important characters.

In this workshop, we will generate new writing through guided exercises and prompts; offer feedback/first impressions on writing you produce in our week.