What you'll learn
Understand the key writing technique the top memoirists use
Identify examples of high quality memoir writing and why they're so good
Identify the potential strengths in your own writing with the class project
Understand how to edit your stories efficiently
Become clear on how to make your story collection more cohesive
Know how to stay motivated with your writing, for this project and in the long term
Requirements
No writing experience needed
Description
In this course, Ruth shares the 4-step approach she used to write her first collection of childhood memoir stories. Learning a key technique that the top memoirists use was one of the most important parts of this approach, so that's where we're going to start. We'll look at examples of high quality writing from James Joyce's "A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man", Hilary Mantel's memoir "Giving Up the Ghost"  and Virginia Woolf's memoir "Moments of Being". We'll also take a look at some beautiful examples from poetry with Seamus Heaney's "Blackberry Picking",  W.B. Yeats's "The Stolen Child" and Emily Dickinson's "A Child's faith is new". Then we'll go through the editing technique Ruth found worked best for her published collection, and then we'll talk about how to bring all your stories together when they're done. Lastly, Ruth will guide you through her top tips on staying motivated in the beginning and right the way through this project, as well as tips on staying motivated to write in the long term.For the class project, you are invited to share your favourite quote from the writing examples we look at and why it is your favourite in 2-3 sentences, on our Q&A forum.Look forward to hearing from you in the Q&A forum!
Who this course is for
Beginning and experienced writers
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