Kickstarting Your Memoir
For members of Good Neighbors of Park Slope and
Brooklyn Society for Ethical Culture
(In Person Workshop)
“There is no greater agony than bearing an untold story inside you.”
Maya Angelou
This will be a four-week gathering of participants ready to start that memoir you have been thinking about but never put pen, or keyboard, to paper or screen. During the first session we will discuss issues such as knowing your audience, developing a theme, how to start writing, how to collect supporting historical documents, how to prepare for interviews and finding your own voice.
The gathering will be limited to eight participants with limited or no publication experience. Each participant will introduce their motivation for writing a memoir and any concerns and questions they want to share and explore. There will be a brief writing assignment that day, time permitting. The final three sessions will include sharing progress, problems and exciting “wow” moments discovered as you begin the memoir. Short passages of the first draft will be shared. Supportive comments from the instructor and peers will follow.
And keep in mind these words from Gabriel Garcia Marquez:
“Life is not what one has lived, but what one remembers and how one chooses to tell it.”
Instructor: Edgar A. Porter, Professor Emeritus, Ritsumeikan Asia Pacific
University, Japan. His most recent publication is From Calvin to Mao: A Memoir.
Schedule: Wednesdays, 12:30 to 2:00; Jan 31, Feb 7, Feb 14 and Feb 21