Registration is now open for Memoirs I: Finding Your Voice at Pencil and Prose.
Everybody’s got a story.
I know this because I am a writer, and by writer I really mean a sort of magpie — you know those birds that fly around collecting all the cool and shiny bits they find? Yeah, that’s me, but instead of shiny bits, I collect snippets of stories and dialogue and mannerisms and history.
Because I mainly write fiction, I take all those bits of stories that I hear (“…when I finished university, I spent a year in Lesotho helping to build wells for remote villages…”) and I turn them into plot points or I use them to inform the backstories of the characters in my tales. I use them as inspiration or a jumping off point, sneakily weaving all those little details I have collected into my fiction (like the exact way the sky looks at twilight on a cold February afternoon or the way that guy at Starbucks stirs his coffee precisely five times.)
But here’s the thing: all those stories that people have told me about their first jobs, their first loves, their struggles, their family history? They deserve to be told as is, without the alchemy of fiction. Those stories are fascinating — how you came out to your parents, or how your family was interned by the government during World War II. How you raised your kids alone, what it’s like to be a grandmother or a nurse or a musician. Your triumphs and challenges and failures and regrets. (Don’t pretend you don’t have all of those things — I know for a fact that if you’ve lived to the age of eighteen, you’ve already had great loves, great losses and several bucketsful of adventures.)
So why not share that story?
To help you do that, I’m offering an online introductory writing course, focussing on the topic of personal memoir. In the six week course we’ll cover how to generate ideas, how to warm up your writing muscles, and how to find your unique voice. We’ll talk about structure and themes and how to tell the best story you can.
It’s a small group setting — maximum six students — which means that you’ll get lots of one-on-one attention. You can attend from anywhere in the world, since the class is online. And since my personal teaching philosophy is that people learn best when they feel comfortable and supported, I make sure that every class is “fear free.” You never have to share your work before you’re ready and the class atmosphere is one of encouragement and positivity. All people — and all stories — are welcomed. (And we have a lot of fun!)
The class begins on Wednesday, September 25th at 6:30 pm (ET) and runs for six weeks. Registration is now open over at Pencil and Prose.
I know you’ve got a story to tell. Let me show you how.
P.
P.S. Do a girl a favour and share this far and wide, would you?