Under Deborah’s gentle guidance you will have five blissful days to indulge your dream and begin your life writing project in a collaborative and supportive environment.

WHEN: 5 x sessions, Monday 20 - 24 January 2020, 9:30am - 1:00pm
WHERE: The University of Auckland, City Campus

Course outline

Session One: Getting Started

• Introductions
• a definition of memoir and why people write memoir
• writing exercise: What brought me here?
• a conducive environment for writing
• a timeline of my life
• group analysis of literary excerpts: ‘I was born’
• writing exercise: ‘I was born.’

Session Two: Remembering Childhood

• The Writing Life: writers’ studios and the writing discipline
• writing exercise: ‘My Writing Space’
• writing tips and guidelines for the presentation of work
• edit workshop: a group exercise
• group analysis of literary excerpts: ‘Remembering Childhood’
• writing exercise: ‘Remembering Childhood’

Session Three: Riding the Teenage Years

• Identifying themes, finding the ideal form for your story, demystifying the process
• writing exercise: ‘Identifying my themes’
• Reviewing memoir — your impressions
• Tips on editing, writing a brief bio and posting a story
• writing exercise: ‘Riding the Teenage years’

Session Four: The Road Chosen and a mentoring session 

• writing exercise: ‘The Road Chosen: On Career, Family and Lifelong Passions’
• individual mentoring sessions with Deborah Shepard

Session five: 

• group reading of participants’ stories posted on ‘Your Story’
• the defining qualities of successful authors
• how to protect your writing project and continue the work
• performing opportunities
• group analysis of literary excerpts: a self-portrait
• writing exercise: ‘A self-portrait: where to from here?’
• shared lunch

Learning outcomesOn completion of this course, participants will be able to: continue the reading programme established on the course, using my bibliography and read memoir critically sit down and write with confidence write for online publication continue writing their memoir for book publication, for blogging, as an essay, for a family history project and perform the writing at the monthly Inside Out Open Mic forum.

Who should attend?
This course is designed for: new writers, people who are interested in writing and are newcomers to the genre people who want to discover their writing voice people who want to record their stories for their family people who want to write and publish their life story people who want to explore their inner world and express their thoughts and feelings and observations and transform them into literature young and older writers people who have written in another genre such as fiction or poetry, or non-fiction and who want to explore memoir.

Writing memoir involves a balance between capturing your own memories on the page and writing biographical accounts of the people, including the ancestors, who have left an imprint on your life.

WHEN: 5 X sessions, Monday 7 - Friday 11 September, 9:30am - 1pm
WHERE: The University of Auckland, City Campus

Course outline
Writing memoir involves an intricate interplay between writing down and preserving your own memories and constructing biographical accounts of the people, including the ancestors, who have left an imprint on your life. On this course, you will receive tuition on the fundamentals of writing memoir and biography and its ethical implications along with techniques that will assist you to write with flair and originality about the key figures, both living and from the past, who have influenced and helped shape your life. It is suitable for participants who have not yet completed Life Writing 1.

Session one: Arriving here – the importance of preserving my story and the family history.

• An introduction to the joys of writing memoir and biography
• Writing exercise 1: arriving here and establishing intent
• Writing exercise 2: My life and the ancestors. Who were they? How did I love them?

Session two: Writing biography

• Establishing intention and audience
• research skills and how to organise archival material
• What biographical sources do I have at my fingertips: letters, journals, personal accounts, photographs
• how much do I write?
• how do I integrate the family stories into my memoir narrative
• what are my responsibilities as biographer intent on preserving their truths?
• An editing workshop.
• Writing exercise 1: My research aspirations
• Writing exercise 2: A brief biographical introduction to…

Session three: The gentle art of oral history and life review

• Where do I begin to tell the story of your life?
• A workshop on conducting oral history to discover the shape of a person’s life
• Practical exercise: recording your story
• Writing exercise: Considering the life story arc.

Session four: The ethical implications of writing about friends, family, lovers and loved ones

• Writing exercise: How do I balance my need to express my truths with a commitment to writing compassionately about the people who figure in my story: what are the ethical implications of writing a biography?
• An individual mentoring session with Deborah

Session five: Publication and celebration

• Preserving the ongoing work: how to maintain focus, enthusiasm and a long-term commitment to the writing project.
• Writing exercise: Reflecting on my story and their story and how they intertwine.

Who should attend?

• People who have completed Deborah’s Life Writing or memoir courses.
• New writers interested in discovering their writing voice through writing about themselves and the people who frame their life.
• Writers already engaged on a life story project who are wishing to deepen and revive their writing content.