$136.00 / month for 4 months with a 7-day free trial
Write your memoir in 4 months and see how it feels to accomplish this important goal!
You know deep within that your story is meant to become something more than simply living in the past. Your experiences and relationships were important and left a mark on you and others. Sharing what you lived by recreating it on the page and engaging with it now through your present-day lens will enable you to find a new relationship with your past, enjoy learning much more about yourself and those in your life, and give your readers the opportunity of going on the journey with you, and learning about themselves in the process.
When you are ready to write your memoir, by doing it alongside this program, you will have far more success at crafting the work to ensure it is vivid, dynamic, engaging, and highly readable. The structure of the program will give you a framework inside of which you can do your daily writing and hold yourself accountable.
By following along with the self-directed lessons, your custom designed writing schedule, and engaging with peer writers for support, you will achieve a full first draft in 4 months.
Self-Directed Study
Weekly lessons help you develop your skill in writing craft. You will learn new approaches to writing as a lifestyle and the genre, determine best strategies for how to structure your story, and see how to manipulate a variety of techniques for establishing setting, developing character, creating tension and plot, how to deal with point of view, different ways to write scene and what your first edit will look like once you have your draft completed.
Your Daily Writing Schedule
Your writing calendar shows you your progressive daily page count for 4 months. Five days a week, you write 3-4 pages per day, which yields a 240-320 page draft. You can share your calendar, progress, and challenges with your mentor to stay accountable and get new strategies for staying on schedule.
Group Support
From the very beginning you will have the opportunity to connect and engage with peer writers in our private Facebook group, The One Lit Place Writers’ Lounge. This is a safe, inclusive group of serious writers all of whom are there to lean on each other, brainstorm, and even branch off into small groups or pairs as beta readers and support partners. When you’re supported by other writers, your output, level of confidence, and feelings of agency remain high- and that’s what spurs you on to keep going, even (and especially!) when the going gets rough.
The program requires you spend about 8 hours per week:
The program was designed to be a manageable length so writers with jobs, families, and other obligations can do the work and not have to make a heavy compromise on your life, while at the same time, 4 months is a productive period when you can see the finish line in fast approach.
*Let us know if you’d like to speed up, slow down, or take breaks; we’re happy to adjust the program length.
The 8 Modules contain 19 lessons: 2 pre-lessons, 16 weekly program lessons, and 1 post-lesson. Each lesson is timed to correspond with your memoir’s development.
Lessons include all aspects of writing craft to create a vivid, dynamic reading experience; how to handle real people, managing memory, writing the nonfiction book proposal, and much more.
The Lessons’ Instructor: Jenna Kalinsky, Founding Director of One Lit Place
This tier of the program is perfect for the motivated author with a strong concept and clear vision. If you find during the program you would benefit from the support of one of our mentors, by all means, reach out! Our mentors are on hand to give you a nudge in the right direction by brainstorming a tricky section, giving you strategies to get you over the humps, read through pages, and simply hold your intensions with you.
You can add mentor hours on an individual basis as much as you need to get the work done and stay focused – and enjoy a 15% discount on the hourly rate as a participant of the program.
Imagine if you were to register right now: in 4 months, that memoir you’ve been holding on to (for how long?) or thinking about will finally be a reality!
Embarking on writing a memoir feels like the equivalent of moving a mountain, but once you start, you’re on your way. Small modifications to your lifestyle such as waking an hour earlier or writing in 2 half-hour chunks during the day for the next four months will move quickly and then you’ll have your book.
You may never “feel ready” to write your memoir, but when you leap in, we will be there to support you every step of the way to make sure your book happens.
Day 1: The program begins the moment you sign up. You receive your Welcome email containing your first lesson, which is a comprehensive preparatory workbook to help you plan out the writing ahead.
Day 3: Receive your second preparatory lesson with downloadable files, the link to our private Facebook group, and the first day’s task.
Day 5: Your last preparatory lesson, which will take you through a 2-day task as you organize your writing process for the next 4 months.
Day 7: Lesson 1 and your first writing day.
Day 8: Your first payment begins. Now we get to work!
If you do your daily writing, engage with your lessons, and talk shop, share intel, and get/give help from your fellow writers, at the end of 4 months, you will have a memoir draft.
You will also learn writing craft, strategies to sustain a long-form writing project, and a ton about what you’re made of and what you’re capable of achieving.
You will learn how it feels to create something meaningful, how to navigate the ups and downs, and how to enjoy letting your literary guide teach you and inspire you along the way.
Most of all, you will learn what it feels like to complete an enormous undertaking- one of which you can be very proud.
If you’re looking for a full support version of mentorship (weekly meetings rather than every-other-week meetings) or would like to do the program on your own with the self-directed lessons and writing schedule, you will find other options to help you write your memoir:
See how it feels to embark on the program before deciding it’s for you. Your first 7 days of the program are FREE.
You’ve been ready to write your memoir for a long time. Now is your time.