Writing Your Story

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Everyone’s got a story to tell. Some are funny. Some are inspiring. Others are tragic. But no matter how compelling your story might seem, it won’t resonate with readers unless you’re able to effectively translate your concept onto the page.

Celebrated journalist, novelist and memoirist Joyce Maynard will give you the tools you need to transform your brilliant idea into an absorbing memoir that readers won’t be able to put down.

Maynard will begin by walking you through the process of identifying your story and how best to tell it. She’ll then help you develop your story through language, story structure, dramatic tension, dialogue, description and editing. Finally, she’ll address the challenges of the writing life, such as how to create a productive practice, design a comfortable writing space, deal with rejection and find an audience.

In this class, you’ll learn how to:

• Understand the difference between telling what happened and exploring your journey.
• Figure out what to include in your story and what to cut out.
• Decide on a point of view, a point of entry and a structure.
• Get over your fears of revealing embarrassing truths about yourself.
• Stop worrying about being judged.
• Deal with loneliness and find your tribe.
• Develop the arc of a sentence, a paragraph and a story.
• Listen to the sound and rhythm of your sentences.

• Class Introduction: What Happens When We Keep Secrets?
• Name Your Obsessions
• Stick to Your Story
• Identify Your Journey
• Identify Your Journey Take Your Story Apart
• The Landing Place
• The Honesty Question
• What's the Worst That Can Happen?
• Descriptive Versus Interpretive Language
• Diagramming the Sentence
• The Importance of Economy
• Dialogue and Rhythm
• Six Common Mistakes Writers Make
• The Paragraph
• Building the Arc
• The Test of a Good Memoir
• The Container
• Two Containers From Scratch
• Developing Your Container
• Dissecting a Good Container Essay
• The Writing Life
• Creating a Writing Practice
• What Gets in Your Way?
• The Non-Writing Process
• Criticism and Rejection
• What Happens When We Tell Our Truth?