W53 Making Memoir Work: Tips for Creating Plot and Broadening Relevancy in Personal Narrative
Friday, February 14
10:45 a.m.–12:15 p.m.

$110.00

WRITING WORKSHOP | Courtney Maum | Memoir & Personal Essay

Out of stock

Description

The finest memoirs borrow tools from fiction writing to develop and sustain momentum, intrigue, and plot.

In this workshop, we’ll learn different approaches to structuring our content for a propulsive and marketable narrative, while also looking at strategies for off-the-book essay pitching to help broaden our platforms.

We’ll start talking about the difference between memories and memoirs, and then look at a wide range of memoir types. We’ll then learn a variety of approaches to memoir structure, using examples to help us understand why a book over performed or underperformed. We’ll learn how to make sure we’re writing something that can be relevant to many people, even if they haven’t experienced what we have, and we’ll cover the fiction-writing tools that can be useful in memoir. We’ll finish the workshop by mapping out the topics we can write about (and pitch) in off-the-book essays. We’ll also cover both manuscript and book-proposal writing.

About Courtney Maum

Courtney Maum is the author of five books, including the groundbreaking publishing guide that Vanity Fair recently named one of the 10 best books for writers, Before and After the Book Deal, and the memoir, The Year of the Horses, chosen by The Today Show as the best read for mental health awareness. A writing coach, executive director of the writing retreat, Turning Points, and educator, Maum says her mission is to help people hold on to the joy of art-making in a culture obsessed with turning artists into brands.