Intro to Memoir
Online Oct 22, Oct 29, Nov 12, Nov 19, Dec 3 (5 Tuesday Afternoons)5:30pm - 8:30pm Pacific$4251 Spot Left
5 Spots Left
Are you a natural-born storyteller looking to stretch your wings or a newbie writer with an itch to share a yarn of your own? In this five-week introductory memoir class, successful memoirist Laura Cathcart Robbins (Simon & Schuster, The Only One In The Room Podcast, Good Housekeeping) will help you dig into your past to excavate compelling personal narratives that only you can write. Then, she’ll teach you the foundations of creative nonfiction craft to structure, refine and polish the results.
Through informative craft lectures, fun in-class writing exercises, illuminating examples and workshopping, you’ll find your story, develop yourself as a specific dimensional character, delve into scene writing, discover themes, hone dialogue and craft vivid settings. In addition to strategies for writing your memoir, additional topics include finding an agent and publishing your book. By the end of the class you’ll have a better understanding of your unique POV and have written a stack of moving scenes. Plus, you can bring in up to 1200 words every other class for feedback. Experienced and beginning writers welcome. Pulitzer not included!
37 students have published books after taking class!
More sections are available:
Laura Cathcart Robbins
Memoir (Simon & Schuster), The Only One In The Room Podcast, Good Housekeeping, HuffPo
Laura Cathcart Robbins is the host of the popular podcast, The Only One In The Room, and author of the Atria/Simon & Schuster memoir, STASH My Life In Hiding, published March 2023. Her recent articles in Good Housekeeping, HuffPo, The Temper on the subjects of race, recovery, and divorce have garnered her worldwide acclaim. She is a Moth StorySlam winner and a 2022 TEDx Speaker. Her podcast, The Only One In The Room, was chosen by Bustle Magazine twice as a top podcast alongside This American Life and Slow Burn as well as Reader’s Digest and Screen Rant. Laura was originally a Writing Pad student. She has been active for many years as a speaker and school trustee and is credited for creating The Buckley School’s nationally recognized committee on Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Justice. MORE