Self Guided
Write Your Memoir Month
October 31 - November 25, 2022
Why should fiction writers get all the support this month? We’re claiming November as National Memoir Writing Month. Long live NaMeWriMo!
Additional Information
Patterned after our popular Thirty-Minute Memoir course, this self-guided course is designed to help you break the potentially overwhelming task of writing a memoir into manageable daily writing assignments. Each week’s lesson, revealed on Monday, will focus on a different aspect of memoir writing, from opening chapters to scenes involving dialogue. Daily writing prompts will keep you motivated and moving ahead with your project.
Each week provides:
- DAILY PROMPTS to help you generate new writing
- INSPIRATION in the form of written lectures and selected readings
After the course closes: you will receive a zip file containing all of the course content and any writing you posted. You’ll also continue to be a member of our Creative Nonfiction Writing Classes’ Community Page. With this free membership, you will be able to share writings and calls for submissions, recommend books, and stay connected with other writers.
Course Schedule
Week 1: Find Your Focus
A memoir needs a focal point on which the writer can build, but many writers dive into their first draft without knowing what their focus is. During Week 1 you will identify the focus of your book (or think of ways to fine-tune that focus for an existing project). This week’s writing prompts will help you identify and hone the central idea of your memoir.
Week 2: The Shape of Your Narrative
A book-length memoir offers many possibilities for structure: should the narrative be chronological, braided, retrospective? You will explore possible shapes for your memoir, and this week's writing prompts provide opportunities to try out (or again, hone) different structures and approaches.
Week 3: Writing About People & A Sense of Place
People are the most important element of a memoir, in that a reader’s interest in all the book’s events is generally founded on his or her interest in the people who lived through those events. The setting in which your book takes place can also be an essential part of the story you want to tell; in many cases, the setting can be a character in and of itself. This week you will learn how to write about people and place in ways that readers will find engaging.
Week 4: Scene & Summary
Two of the most pivotal elements of nonfiction are scene and summary. You’'ll study the difference between summary and scene and practice using both effectively.
Hear from our Students
Creative Nonfiction’s online writing classes have helped more than 3,000 writers tell their stories better.
Read Success StoriesTestimonials
I enjoyed reading other peoples work and getting feedback about my own work– the handouts/video links and class lessons were also very informative and relevantly paced to the give structural guidelines.
Catherine O’Neill