Print this page Turning Memories into Memoir

Do you have a lifetime of stories to tell, but don’t know where to start? Learn how to turn memories into memoir by accessing your authentic writer’s voice and bringing to the page the stories and characters you know so well. Using meditative writing techniques Jan will take you deep into sense memory, where you can discover how to create the descriptive detail needed to bring your stories to life. You need a few other things too, like a strong narrator voice and an ability to turn ‘the ordinary’ into ‘the extraordinary’ – it’s all possible with a little bit of help. Use this opportunity to kickstart your memoir and acquire the tools, confidence and discipline to continue writing a full memoir, collection of stories or memoir-based works.

DELIVERY MODE

• Face-to-Face

SUGGESTED READING

• Writing the Memoir, Judith BarringtonWriting
• True Stories, Patti Miller
• Writing Down The Bones, Natalie Goldberg
• The Writing Life, Annie Dillard

COURSE OUTLINE

• Gathering your material, researching, mapping the territory
• Sensing the memoir
• Finding your narrator voice
• Finding the story
• Structuring your narrative
• Rewriting, editing and the writing discipline

LEARNING OUTCOMES

By the end of this course, students should be able to:

1. Gain research and information gathering, creative scrap-booking skills
2. Create evocative descriptive detail
3. Express a strong narrator voice
4. Know the essential elements of storytelling
5. Know how to structure your memoir
6. Edit, rewrite and set goals for daily writing practice