Community and Support for Your Memoir
One of my big takeaways from the pandemic is the importance of community, especially for us writers. Today, I’m excited to share two offerings that have come out of this challenging year.
First up is Reboot Your Memoir, a 4-week class I’m offering this June to help you reboot and reinvigorate your memoir. (Keep reading for more info). I’ll also be offering a beautiful new Writer’s Circle community for accountability and support designed to support the serious writer. Priority will be given to Memoir Mastery alumni, and we’ll start in July. More info coming soon!
Reboot Your Memoir
Writing your memoir can be an especially rewarding journey. At times, it can also be quite challenging. On bad days, it can feel like you’re shooting at a moving target. There’s a reason so many memoirists get stuck, particularly once the initial excitement has worn off and we’re stuck in the mucky middle.
In this 4-week workshop, we’ll cover solid techniques for rebooting your memoir. We’ll reassess your current roadmap, define what’s working and clarify what needs tweaking—all within a safe and supportive community. You’ll leave this course with renewed clarity about your memoir and a clear set of next steps to help you reach the finish line.
Please note that this isn’t a traditional writing workshop, as we won’t be giving you feedback on your writing. Reboot Your Memoir is a series of working sessions designed to help you clarify what belongs in your book and what doesn’t. I’ll be teaching you how to do a developmental edit of your memoir, and you’ll learn how to use the big picture view of your book to make craft decisions on the page level. The rest of us will serve as a sounding board to help support you and your vision of what your book wants to be.
Our focus will be on creating structure for your memoir and giving you the support you need to untangle your manuscript and move the needle forward. You’ll be doing this within a community of writers who are on the same journey, so we’ll have lots of accountability and support.
Please note: This is a working class interspersed with teaching and support. As such, please plan on printing out your materials (whether you have 25 pages or 200) and bringing them to our workshop. If possible, please do not read over your manuscript before we meet. The more distance you have, the better.
Course Logistics
Schedule:
- Wednesday June 2, 9, 16, 23
- 5-7pm PST/ 6-8pm MST/ 7-9pm CST/ 8-10pm EST
We’ll meet on Zoom. All calls will be recorded and available to you for one year.
Price: $279
Click here to register.
To register using the two-pay option, please click here.
Weekly Breakdown
Here’s how our time together will look:
Week 1: Clarifying Your Memoir’s Big Picture
We’ll spend our first week clarifying the big picture, drilling down on your character’s transformation and your book’s universal theme—essentially clarifying your narrative arc. I’ll introduce you to a core organizational concept and teach you how to plan out the big picture, whether you’re in the earlier stages of your memoir or in the final pass. We’ll look at examples of contemporary memoirs for inspiration, then write our own back cover copy.
Week 2: Fine-Tuning Your Narrative Arc
We’ll spend the second week looking at your book’s backbone, your narrative arc. Does each scene move the central conflict forward? If not, what needs to shift? We’ll break down the components of successful scenes to identify weak spots and help you course correct. Finally, we’ll discuss pacing so that you can start thinking about how the different pieces work together.
Week 3: Reviewing Your Manuscript
Now that we have the big picture pieces dialed in, it’s time to get our hands dirty. We’ll spend weeks 3 and 4 working with the actual manuscript, sifting through what you have and determining what belongs in this specific story and what doesn’t, what needs to be condensed, expanded, etc. With the support of the group, this will be a fun process, with breaks for laughter and support.
Week 4: Reviewing Your Manuscript
We’ll spend the bulk of our final class continuing our manuscript work, with breaks for questions, support and self-care. We’ll also discuss self-care techniques as well as ways to stay supported moving forward.
To Register
If Reboot Your Memoir calls to you, I’d love to invite you to join us!
Click here to register.
If you’d prefer the two-pay option, please click here.
Questions?
Hit reply or email me directly at tanja [at] tanjapajevic [dot] com.
Wishing you a wonderful weekend!
Tanja
P.S.: Happy Mother’s Day to those of you who celebrate!
P.P.S. If you’ve lost your mother, I wrote this piece for you. Lots of love.
