#Memoir writing how to
#Memoir writing series

With reflection, you invite the reader the sense you make of your own lived experience. Without reflection, readers are led to sort out what your scenes mean based on their own reactions to what you experienced. The skill of reflecting on the page is where heart meets story, and where you connect to your reader emotionally. Characters are yet another way for your readers to relate to you-and giving plenty of attention to character development and characterization deepens your readersвЂ™ loyalty. WeвЂ™ll talk about the importance of secondary and tertiary characters, and the interdynamics between you create between you and your characters are stand-ins for your readersвЂ™ relationships, too. This is session weвЂ™ll unpack some of KieseвЂ™s teachings, and delve into the many ways you can create more dynamic and complex characters.

#Memoir writing how to

KieseвЂ™s work shows us about the power of language and how to harness words to make an impact on your reader.ДЇor those students who join us for The Heart of Memoir, weвЂ™ll have experienced the privilege of being taught about characters by Kiese prior to this four-week course.

In this class we will look at language choice, at intentional repetition, and language as a theme. In Heavy, KieseвЂ™s conscientious use of language, in addition to his emphasis on words and meaning, stands out for the way he points readers to consider language, its intentionality, and its impact. вЂњI live better if IвЂ™m playing the writing game better.вЂќ Taking these sorts of actions supports you to understand your own life as a story that others want to read, and always offers an opportunity to better understand your own story as it unfolds on the page. You might stop to take an inventory, or do an outline, or name your conflict, your rising action, your resolution. Tracking your narrative invites you, as the memoirist, to consider stepping outside of your own work from time to time. In this class, Joshua Mohr will invite you to consider that view from above, and give you tools to work with your arc. Few writers of memoir consider the importance of the arc of their narrative because itвЂ™s the view from above the canopy of trees, and when youвЂ™re writing, youвЂ™re more often down on the ground, inside the forest of your story. You might be asking yourself whether your life story has rising conflict, or even grappling with how to choose an inciting incident or climax.

It can be hard to hold the arc of your narrative because it often feels so big. This class aims to help you to see the wide range of whatвЂ™s available to you as a writer when you consider and choose your lens when you come to the page.

#Memoir writing series

And how, just like a movie, your memoir is a series of shots that can be expressive, reflection, summary, experimental, and so much more. This class will explore time, place, and details-in essence, the building blocks of scene, but Brooke will show you why it matters what your angle is. Brooke invites you to inhabit your scene by imagining yourself the director of your life story-your memoir. This class, taught by Brooke Warner, is a visual guide to consider where you are in your story, and from what lens youвЂ™re writing a given scene. The better control you have over your camera, and the more comfortable you feel directing those shots, the better in control of your memoir youвЂ™ll be too. In memoir, the lens is a great visual because you are like a cameraperson, directing the depth of field, the distance, the angle, the shot. This class will help you see your own role in a bigger and more universal human story-no matter what your story might be. Memoir is about you, but itвЂ™s more than that, too. Ford will teach what she knows about writing YOU, and support you to consider how you show up on the page and what your responsibility is to your reader. Memoir is about you and your story, and yet your reader comes to the page not for you, but to learn or understand something about themselves or about the world through your story. Are you really going to write that? What will people think? What happens if you canвЂ™t remember every detail of what youвЂ™re trying to put on the page? And what about those moments when you did something youвЂ™re not proud of? How do you cultivate self-awareness-to show who you are, and also how others see you? These questions are at the heart of writing a story in which you are cast in the central role. You are the protagonist of your own story, and yet, because itвЂ™s you, feelings come up.