Memoir Boot Camp: an Accountability-Driven Generative Craft Class Offering Core Aspects of Autobiographical Writing.

This is a course with wellness benefits and practical learnings in the field of autobiographical writing (aka memoir, or life writing). It is suited to beginners as well as those with creative writing experience. On a personal level, memoir can benefit us in teasing out core stories in our lives, and finding the meaning in them. This course is highly beneficial in terms of supporting our wellness and mental health, given that creative, or expressive, writing, when practiced frequently, and incrementally, can help us Studies consistently show (See "Expressive Writing in Psychological Science" by James W. Pennebaker)  that expressive, or creative, writing has significant health benefits. It can help us to regulate our emotions and our nervous systems, and to regain a sense of clarity, reconnecting us to ourselves and to others. The applications or benefits go beyond the remit of any specific genre.

This course covers such memoir essentials as how to

• write immersive scenes (show), weaving in effective exposition (tell).

• identify and implement the “story within the story,” aka the through-line, or central narrative thread.

• develop your narrative voice.

• work with leitmotifs, by implementing recurring imagery, or thematic elements.

• work with different time lines and establish a sense of the “narrative present”.

• map your narrative arc and develop a structure that works for you.

• use free writing to break through blocks and progressively home in on the story you want to tell.

   

  Further Course Details

• This 10-week evening course is capped at eight students, with a supportive, accountability focus. Each two-hour class is dedicated to learning a specific aspect of craft. We will closely read exemplary texts (PDFs provided), and then practice our learnings in tailored prompts.

• With three x 15 minutes writing prompts per class, you will have the space to potentially write 500 to 1,000 words (5,000 - 10,000 words across the course as a whole).

• You will also receive a minimum of half an hour of individual consultation to assist you in moving your story forward.

• Texts are equitable in terms of representation of BIPOC writers.

• Reading includes extracts from the following writers:

  • Memoir / Personal Essay: James Baldwin (Notes of a Native Son), Aisha Sabatini Sloan (Dreaming of Ramadi in Detroit), Suad Aldarra (I Don’t Want to Talk About Home), Sonali Deraniyagala (The Wave), Michelle Zauner (Crying in H Mart), Sarah Krasnostein (The Trauma Cleaner) Lea Ypi (Free), André Dubus III (Townie) .

  • Craft Readings: Vivian Gornick (The Situation and the Story), Melissa Febos (Body Work), Sven Birkerts (The Art of Time in Memoir: Then, Again), Gail Sher (One Continuous Mistake), Joan Bolker (Writing Your Dissertation in 15 Minutes a Day).