The course is divided into 4 steps.
Each step contains 3 chapters.
One new chapter opens every week.
STEP ONE: IDENTIFY THE HEART OF YOUR STORY
Week 1: Who Cares About My Story?
Our stories are the songs that have sung through us and shaped us into the people we have become. And the decision to write our stories is also a decision to honor ourselves, our voices, our experiences. To begin, we’ll start with a few suggestions for bringing writing into your daily life. Highlights from this chapter include:
How to elevate and prioritize your writing in daily life.
Inspiring tips to get you writing every day.
Finding the ‘sky writing’ in your story: how to frame and shape your story so that it will have broader resonance and meaning for others.
Week 2: Small is Beautiful
Most, if not all, writers start small. We build our literary muscle by working on short, manageable pieces. Creating and finishing small beautiful pieces will not only teach you to hone your work as you go, it will give you the affirmation and incentive you need to go on to the next piece with confidence and clarity. If you are able to understand what it takes to craft a short memoir (or chapter) successfully, you can replicate that. Highlights from this chapter include:
Why your story does not need to be huge & dramatic to be interesting, but what it does need to be instead.
How to ensure that your story has a centre of gravity or an organizing principle that holds the piece together.
A sampling of small memoirs & direction on how to see the larger story within each one.
Week 3: Separation & Transformation
The work we do to prepare to write memoir is as essential as the writing itself. Very often, the periods of our lives we choose to write about are those that have shaped us most profoundly, and these tend to be rich in emotion and meaning. There is vital preparatory work that needs to be done so the story is ready to be transformed into memoir. Some of this work includes:
How to separate from your story before and as you write it.
The essential element of transformation and how to chart it in your own story.
The crucial difference between memoir & therapy.
STEP TWO: CREATE A CONTAINER
Week 4: What NOT to Write About
Even when we think we have a clear idea of what we want to write about, we may only be at the early stages of understanding what the story truly is. And it is often only when we begin to contain a story that its fullness is able to emerge. In this chapter, you’ll be encouraged to find the edges of your story because, paradoxically, these limits will set you free. We’ll look at this subject from a number of angles, including:
Why a container is essential and how to craft one that suits your material.
What NOT to write about. (This is vital!)
Why your story may not be what you think it is and how to find what it is really about.
Week 5: Structure is Sculpture
A structure can literally make or break a memoir. By developing an eye for structure, seeing how other writers have assembled them, and how well these structures support otherwise unwieldy material, we are able to absorb and apply their gifts to our own work. A study in structure will serve you in everything you go on to write. Highlights from this chapter include:
To outline or not to outline. :) (This is not the only question, but it’s one of them.)
A magic formula for structure and what other art forms can teach us.
Apprenticing with the Masters: studies in literary architecture that we can use in our own work.
Week 6: Unexpected Directions
Many people have a fairly clear idea what they would like to write about. Or, at least, they think they know what the story is about and what its basic shape is. One of the (many) funny things about writing is that it really does have a life and design all its own, so it's important to stay open to unanticipated turns and insights, and to be ready to adjust our 'plans' when 'the real story' begins to emerge.
Your story many not be what you think it is (even when you're absolutely sure you know what it is!).
Shapeshifting stories: how things can change drastically as we write.
Unexpected surprises: the gifts that can await us when we let the story be free.
Week 7: Reading Week
This is a welcome week to read, digest and reflect. It includes a memoir movie night!
STEP THREE: HONOR: TRUTH, YOURSELF, OTHERS
Week 8: Truth & Memory
There is no more complex subject in memoir (or perhaps in life) than that of truth: what it is, how to define it, how to find it, how to write it, the 'your truth vs my truth' question, what to do if we don’t remember everything, what do we do if someone else remembers things differently, how to know when have we crossed the line into fiction—endless, endless questions. This chapter provides some answers! Among other things, we’ll cover:
Can you write about something if you don’t remember exactly what happened or if your version of events differs from someone else’s?
Keys to accessing memory: how to excavate the details, even when you don’t think you remember them.
Invention vs. Deception.
Week 9: Voice & Permission
Even a brilliant story in the wrong hands will collapse, and any story in the right voice can soar. But how do you find your voice? In this chapter, we’ll explore this question. We will also address the subject of permission, specifically the permission we need to feel in order to tell our family stories. And lastly, we’ll look at our audience and who you need to be thinking of when you write. These lessons include:
How to find your authentic voice and why a strong voice is so critical for a memoir.
Who gets to be in your story? How do you choose your ‘characters’?
Getting clear on audience: who are you writing for? Do you need to know?
Week 10: My Family & Other Animals
The title of this chapter is borrowed from the wonderful classic by Gerald Durrell, published in 1956. The literary landscape may have changed since then, but the challenges facing people writing about their families have not. We'll look at these questions, as well as at a couple of examples of people (including me) who have dealt with some of these challenges. Subjects include:
How do we write about family, even if they don’t wish to be written about it? Do we need their permission?
Dealing with difficult people. (There are ways.)
What to do when someone objects to your story.
STEP FOUR: CRAFT ART
Week 11: Speaking of Dialogue
This chapter covers one of my favourite elements of writing! Unlike exposition and description, which tend to be chewier for the reader, slower to read and digest, dialogue whips along, shifts the pacing, and it often contains as much space on the page as it does words. I like to think of it as the sips of water between bites. We’ll look at:
How to write convincing dialogue (especially when it happened decades ago).
Dialogue in 10 Easy Steps.
Bringing someone to life through dialogue: how to develop character through voice.
Week 12: The Craft of Writing
As I'm sure you can appreciate, I could have created an entire course on the craft of writing itself. To that end, this chapter is a series of glimpses: brief and basic overviews of concepts to consider, along with suggestions and links to places where these complex subjects can be explored in greater depth. Some of these include:
Start with good sentences. It might seem obvious, but you’d be surprized how many people overlook this!
The essentials of the craft that you need to write well, plus resources to help you strengthen your own weaknesses.
“Art Stands on the Shoulders of Craft.” An explanation of this quote and why it affects everything you write.
Week 13: The Art of Revision
Once again, I could have created an entire course on the art of revising and editing oneself. And once again, I provide a general overview of the subject with specific suggestions and then offer recommendations and links to places where you can dive more deeply into this, if you so choose. Topics include:
Writing is rewriting. And rewriting and rewriting and rewriting. But how do you do it, and how do you know when you’ve done it well enough?
10 Suggestions for Revising. How to become your own best editor first.
An editing checklist that you can use for everything you go on to write.
Week 14: Where to Go from Here
Now that you have established a writing practice and have been writing regularly, how do you keep it going once this program ends? This chapter is a farewell, but it includes a number of suggestions to ensure that you keep writing!
Publishing your work: the basics and a list of publications that publish memoir.
An answer to that great philosophical question Why Bother?
How to keep up the momentum once the course is over. Ways to stay connected, motivated and supported — and writing.
