How do you tell a story when you’re right in the middle of living it? In this workshop, you’ll join two memoirists to learn two different approaches to personal storytelling. Make your scenes immediate, visceral, and real with Mary Karr; then construct a scaffold for those scenes with Tammy Dawn Letherer — a hero’s journey story arc that keeps readers riveted. This workshop is for anyone who wants to write a memoir, whether you are just beginning or have a complete first draft.

“We're all in this together, trying to make sense of what it is to be a human being. And it's a hard and kind of beautiful and noble thing for you to try to do.” - Mary Karr

Workshop Timeline

Milestone 1: In Writing the Truth: How to Start Writing Your Memoir, a Skillshare Original with bestselling memoirist Mary Karr (The Liar’s Club, Cherry), you’ll learn how she approaches telling real stories that feel real to the reader. Through a series of memory-focused exercises, you’ll explore Mary’s process with clear, actionable direction for applying it to your own work. Share your exercises in the project gallery by October 28th.

Milestone 2: Now that you have an overarching approach to memoir-writing that can be applied to any narrative structure, dive into the hero’s journey with inspiring new teacher Tammy Dawn Letherer in Crafting Memoir: How to Outline Your Own Hero’s Journey. The hero’s journey is a story form based on Joseph Campbell's monomyth The Hero with a Thousand Faces. Tammy shares how she used this template to become the hero of her own story and how you can do the same. Share a one page summary of your hero’s journey to the project gallery by November 11th.

Start Your Memoir

14 oct. - 11 nov.

Start Your Memoir

14 oct. - 11 nov.