"The life of man is the true romance, which when it is valiantly conducted, will yield the imagination a higher joy than any fiction."
—Ralph Waldo Emerson
Read what students are saying about this class.
The story of your own or your family's history is likely to be the most personal, emotionally satisfying, and potentially overwhelming writing project you'll ever undertake. You've collected all the oral history, personal memories, journal entries, photographs, letters and countless other documents. Now, just where do you go from here?
This workshop will give you an understanding of the various approaches to personal/family memoir writing and provide you with professional feedback on your specific memoir project. When you're finished, you will have written and revised chapters of your personal/family memoir (up to 12,000 words) and you will have developed a working outline for the entire book. To get the most from this workshop you should already have a good grasp of mechanics and composition, as well as an understanding of basic life stories writing skills and techniques (the Fundamentals of Personal/Life Stories Writing Workshop is strongly recommended as a preliminary).
This workshop will consist of seven two-week sessions. Each session will include online lectures and associated textbook reading assignments, along with a writing assignment related specifically to your memoir, which will be submitted to the instructor for private review at the end of the first week of the session. During the second week of each session, work will be posted for group review and feedback. Throughout the workshop you will be able to participate in asynchronous lecture discussion and encouraged to take advantage of ongoing informal discussions and posted self-directed writing exercises. (2.8 CEUs)
| Workshop length: |
14 weeks |
| Textbook(s) to purchase: |
Writing the Memoir: From Truth to Art, Judith Barrington (Eighth Mountain Press) and You Can Write Your Family History, Sharon DeBartolo Carmack (Betterway Books) (If you are unable to locate either text, contact us for purchase information.) |
| Course Developer: |
Sharon DeBartolo Carmack and Katherine Scott Sturdevant |
| Tuition: |
$425.00 |
Workshop Outline
Session One: Defining Your Book and Your Intended Reader
The different types of personal and family memoirs; Deciding what your book is and who it is for; Defining the scope and theme of your book; Who is the main "character"?; Who is the narrator?
Writing Assignment: A narrative summary of the memoir you want to write, including why you want to write it, who you are writing it for, and what you want the book to "say" about you or your family (maximum 500 words).
Session Two: What to Put In and What to Leave Out
Using a dateline to establish the chronology of your book; Putting your memoir into historical perspective; Planning your research strategy; Making smart—and tough—decisions about what belongs in your book, and what doesn't
Writing Assignment: The dateline for your book (maximum 750 words); a description of the research you'll need to conduct (maximum 500 words)
Session Three: Conducting Research & Developing Your "Characters"
Genealogical and historical research; Defining your characters and their relationships; The careful use of dialogue
Writing Assignment: A "cast of characters" for your book, with a brief description of each one's relationship to the central character (maximum 500 words); a scene from your book that puts a character into historical perspective (maximum 500 words).
Session Four: Organizing Your Material Into a "Plot" for Your Book
Organizational ideas; Turning your dateline into a working outline for your book; Using scenes as the building blocks for your plot; Transitions
Writing Assignment: A working outline for your book (maximum 1,500 words) and two scenes connected by a transition of time and/or place (maximum 750 words)
Session Five: The Opening Pages
Opening devices; Hooking your reader in the first paragraph; Establishing the time and place of your story
Writing Assignment: The opening pages of your personal or family memoir (maximum 3,000 words)
Session Six: A Plan for Finishing Your Book
How to stay on track and keep your book from "sagging" in the middle; Revising and rewriting
Writing Assignment: The next 3,000 words of your book (or a revision of the first 3,000 words based on the feedback you've received).
Session Seven: Keep Writing
Workshop wrap-up
Writing Assignment: Additional chapters of your book, either picking up where you left off with the Session Six assignment, or starting from the beginning and incorporating revisions (maximum 6,000 words total).