$344.00
Turn memory into meaning in this engaging 8-week interactive online workshop.
Mine your life experiences, memories, and your relationship to your life in writing exercises, essay, or memoir chapters. The more you give shape and nuance to your remembered experiences and the people in your life, the more we are able to make sense of our lives— and give that opportunity to others through our work.
8 weeks
Next session: TBA
Online
Questions about the course? Contact us to learn more!
The online classroom is active and available 24/7, making it the perfect opportunity for writers anywhere in the world to engage in the weekly lectures, writing exercises, and dynamic conversation with peers and instructor any time.
Out of stock
Events, moments, and stretches of time pass, but capturing them in writing preserves them forever.
Whether you are writing for friends, loved ones, or for a wider audience through publication, writing from your life experiences is one of the richest ways to create a story, and one of the most rewarding.
“In this online life writing/memoir course for all writers, we work with true-to-life stories from your past and present. Like a message in a bottle, you take your material- a particular experience you want to revisit and share (the message)- tuck it safely into a form (the bottle), and throw it (style) into the world.” Alice Neiley
Your learning is structured so each week has different writing assignments on memory-jogging topics ranging from love to home to family. Readings from a variety of writers who have explored memoir and life writing will serve as examples from which you’ll model your writing or use as triggers: Kathryn Harrison, Frank McCourt, Patti Smith, James Baldwin, etc., and we’ll discuss how they structure and style their stories. We read the masters of the genre to learn from the best.
In the workshop, you’ll share your writing with the group and the supportive, constructive comments and feedback spark conversation and further inspiration. These short exercises serve as the building blocks for your final personal essay (which also may wind up being the beginning of a longer piece).
While fiction is or can be entirely fabricated, nonfiction stories, essays, and memoir are designed to speak to true events and relationships for a purpose and at the same time must be just as readable as fiction with plot, character, and setting sculpting the telling of the piece. Braiding together writing craft and staying true to the events and relationships as they actually occurred requires very careful sculpting and attention:
Nonfiction is one of the most exciting- and saleable genres- for a reason. Readers feel identified and heard through writers’ sharing their true-to-life events, thoughts, and feelings. Being able to take yourself into story, essay and memoir is extremely exciting work.
[ezcol_1quarter]Dates:[/ezcol_1quarter] [ezcol_3quarter_end]Dates TBA[/ezcol_3quarter_end]
[ezcol_1quarter]Length:[/ezcol_1quarter] [ezcol_3quarter_end]8 weeks[/ezcol_3quarter_end]
[ezcol_1quarter]Where:[/ezcol_1quarter] [ezcol_3quarter_end]Online in a secure One Lit Place classroom[/ezcol_3quarter_end]
[ezcol_1quarter]Format:[/ezcol_1quarter] [ezcol_3quarter_end]Weekly lecture & readings with 24/7 classroom engagement and access[/ezcol_3quarter_end]
[ezcol_1quarter]Instructor:[/ezcol_1quarter] [ezcol_3quarter_end]TBA [/ezcol_3quarter_end]