The Body and Soul of Your Memoir: Shape, Focus, and Write Your Memoir

The calling to share our lives in memoir form brings many of us to the page. How then do we find what the memoir most wants to be? Unearthing the soul (the main focus and calling of your memoir) and the body (the organization and structure) takes careful discernment, attentive writing, and wild abandon, all of which we’ll do in this class.

Through innovative writing prompts, readings and reflections, and sharing ideas and plans in progress, you’ll learn ways to home into your main focus, map out scenes, shape chapters, and bird-by-bird, build a strong and flexible outline that gives you freedom and structure. Along the way, you’ll explore the art and practice of creating enduring settings and characters. You’ll also write at least 50 pages of your memoir, whether you’re just beginning, continuing, or close to finishing your manuscript. By doing the actual writing at the same time you’re developing your focus and structure, you’ll continually be able to integrate the book’s evolution into your writing process. 

All of this writing travels hand-in-hand with investigating how other memoir writers put their books together. Weekly online lessons will include excerpts of powerful memoirs, annotated outlines of how the writers organized and developed their memoirs, and interviews (videos, podcasts, articles) with memoir writers. Featured memoirist will include: James McBride, Linda Hogan, Stephanie Mills, J. Drew Lanham, Sharon Butala, Joy Harjo, Kim Stafford, Chris Offut, Anne Lamott, Fenton Johnson, Gregory Orr, Sloan Crosley, and others. 

Each week, you’ll share and receive encouraging feedback on a scene, excerpt, or other material from your memoir. Weekly online discussions on how to best sustain your writing process will help you continue to write, finish, and revise your memoir after the class. This class also includes weekly resources for the Care and Feeding of the Writer.

This Course is for Anyone Interested In:

• Writing or finishing a memoir, whether you’re in the dreaming-it-up stage or two thirds of the way through a draft.
• Strategies and practices to find and evolve your book’s focus, organization, and development.
• Deepening your non-fiction writing experience, whether you’re just dipping your toes in or have been at it for eons.
• Honing your understanding and practice of creating enduring and vivid settings and characters as well scene-building and chapter-shaping.

Learning and Writing Goals

Learning Goals

In this course, you will learn:

• How to find and stay true to the focus of your memoir.
• Effective ways to structure your whole memoir, each chapter, and each scene.
• Ways in which other memoir writers organize, focus, and develop their memoirs.
• Techniques and approaches for creating vivid settings and compelling characters (especially when writing about real places and people).
• Ethical considerations of writing about real life and actual humans.
• Best practices to clear away doubt, perfectionism, and other barriers and instead embrace your best path ahead.

Writing Goals

In this course, you will have the opportunity to:

• Write 50 or more pages of your memoir at an average of six-to-seven or more pages each week.
• Create a strong statement of your memoir’s focus.
• Craft an open outline that gives you both freedom and structure to guide your writing and map out chapters and scenes.
• Share positive and encouraging feedback with several fellow students weekly on a short scene or excerpt.
• Write in a response to weekly topic on strengthening and sustaining your writing practice.

Zoom Schedule

There will be two Zoom sessions to get to know each other at the start and celebrate our writing at the end. These meetings will be held on Thursdays June 13th and August 1st from 8-9:30 PM Eastern. 

Weekly Syllabus

Each week will include written mini-talks; examples of how other memoir writers create powerful books through excerpts, annotated outlines of their books, and interviews (including podcasts, videos, and articles); Care and Feeding of the Writer reflections and discussion questions; and an opportunity to share an excerpt or other aspect of your memoir-in-process.

Because we are tending emerging and vulnerable first drafts, we will not be critiquing each other’s work but instead sharing feedback based on what works well and draws us deeper into the writing. Additionally, everyone is encouraged to write at least six-to-seven pages weekly of their memoir (some of which may be excerpted for our weekly sharing). While you are only expected to comment on two or three of your peers’ writing weekly, I will share encouraging comments on all your writing each week.

Week One: The Soul of Your Memoir

On the premise that a memoir is one integrated and in-depth story rather than many stories we’ve lived, we’ll explore how to sort through possibilities and land on your guiding story. We’ll also learn ways to create a shelf for what you may or may not include so that you’re not encumbered by too many possibilities. You’ll look at book summaries about other memoirs to give you greater context for writing a statement about your own memoir’s focus, which is also good practice for envisioning what might be on the back cover of your book. And we’ll talk about how to set up a healthy and generative memoir-writing practice. You’ll share writing on the focus of your memoir.

Week Two: The Body of the Memoir

A big picture view of your memoir can help your book come into focus and give you greater clarity on how to write it. This week focuses on how organize or re-organize your memoir, including chronologically, thematically, by characters or places, or other frameworks. I’ll share annotated outlines of some fantastic memoirs out there to give you more examples. We’ll review how maps are not the territory, and it’s important to see your outline as in-progress, or as Ted Lasso once said, “in prog-mess.” You’ll have a chance to share some of what you’re discovering in mapping out your memoir.

Week Three: Vibrant Scenes

By weaving together action, dialogue, description, and other elements, you can create compelling scenes that show rather than tell what is happening. At the same time, strong scenes go a long way in developing your characters and setting through their words, gestures, and movement. We’ll look at examples and ideas for making each scene its own micro story that contributes to unfolding the whole memoir. We’ll also strategize on what to do with scenes you’re not sure yet will be part of the book and how to write more challenging scenes. You’ll share a scene in process.

Week Four: Real Life People

Writing vivid characters can be all-the-more challenging when you’re working off real people. We’ll dive into approaches for making your characters three-dimensional so that writing about them not only illuminates your story but shows you new layers of experience and meaning. What’s more, your setting (even if it includes multiple locations) is its own character, and we’ll talk about how to convey the depth of where your story takes place. Throughout this week, we’ll peruse plenty of examples of people and places as characters. We’ll also discuss how to write about real people ethically and in line with your values and ongoing relationships. You’ll share a scene focusing on a character or several characters.

Week Five: Shapely Characters

Chapters bring together scenes in such a way that both creates an arc for each chapter and contributes to an overall arc for the whole memoir. We’ll look at what make a shapely chapter, including, through examples and resources, how shorter, longer, or medium-sized chapters might unfold. We’ll also consider how to mold the chapter to make it engaging, have just enough tension, and move along the whole story of the memoir. You’ll share some or all of a chapter.

Week Six: Compelling Beginnings, Enduring Endings

Every scene, every chapter, and every memoir needs a welcoming beginning and evocative ending. We’ll look at how other writers open and close scenes, chapters, and their overall books, and how you might experiment with various approaches. It can also be advantageous to write the ending of a chapter or scene (or even of your whole book) first while keeping an open mind about making changes later on. Likewise, sometimes it’s helpful to write the beginning of a memoir last or in the middle of drafting the memoir. You’ll share some of your beginnings and endings from chapters or scenes.

Week Seven: Bringing Body and Soul Together

Throughout the writing process, it’s essential to go back and forth between the macro (the outline and big picture of the book) and the micro (the specifics scenes and moments) to garner guidance for writing the next paragraph, scene, and chapter. We’ll explore how to toggle back and forth between the focus, outline, and specific moments, and in the process, prepare yourself for moving to Revision-Land after your first draft. You’ll share an excerpt from your writing.

Week Eight: The Ride and Writing Ahead

Writing a memoir is always a road trip into mystery and surprise, sometimes with long stretches of confusion on back roads that get you lost and occasionally on giant highways at high speed. We’ll immerse ourselves in strategies, inspirations, and rituals to keep the faith along the way, even if the book and road ahead changes. We’ll also talk more about Revision-Land and how to prepare for your time there while you’re still drafting the book.

$545.00Enroll Now