We’ll read and study from a range of memoirs to explore what needs to be in scene versus summary, how to create vivid scenes that don’t bog down, plus how to weave in essential backstory.

Assignment: write a scene, write an essential few paragraphs of summary; understand why each needs to exist in this particular form.

We’ll study different techniques for writing dialogue, as well as what to do when we can’t remember conversations word for word. We’ll talk about the purpose of dialogue, and when (and when not) to use it.

Assignment: write or revise a crucial conversation from your own work-in-progress.

Every writer of memoir wonders what to do about the gaps (or distortions) of their memories. In this class, we’ll see how published authors handle this problem and apply their techniques to our own works-in-progress.

Assignment: using one of the examples we studied in class, write a scene that you don’t remember, or don’t remember clearly, or remember differently from others who were there.

What do you do when months, days, or even years pass between crucial events in your story? We’ll read selections from a range of memoirs and personal essays and discuss different ways to time-travel through without losing the reader.

Assignment: using each of the techniques we’ve studied in class, write (or revise) a scene or series of time-based transitions in your work.

Any scene that takes place prior to the arc of the narrative is considered a flashback. We’ll read examples from fiction and nonfiction as we discuss how, when, where, and why delving into the past can move a story forward.

Assignment: Write your own flashback, and understand why this moment is more effectively told out of order.

Much of what’s important in memoir is the main character’s change of perspective or depth of understanding. We’ll study scenes from a range of memoirs that show these moments and use them as models to improve our own works-in-progress.

Assignment: write an “aha!” moment in which a small thing changes everything; the narrator cannot un-know what’s now more fully understood. Build in the incremental changes that lead up to this scene.