Writing a Memoir.
The Memoir Course.
Our online writing course will guide you every step of the way as to how to tell your story.
Start today at just £149. Happy writing.
What is a 'memoir'?
A memoir is not the same as an autobiography. It's not a chronological account of one's lifetime. A memoir is story-shaped and the author selects material from experience suited to its story purpose. A memoir is carefully composed to be as page-turning as any work of fiction and derives its wit and energy from its purpose which is to give a first person account of a particular individual experience of interest to readers. The Novelry helps writers become published authors by making sure they understand how story works.
You’ll enjoy the original, practical guidance from an acclaimed author and memoirist via video and text lessons. Lean on the step-by-step guidance to compose your own successful memoir.
Prize-winning author Tim Lott will show you how to write a skilful and affecting memoir in 15 lessons. Tim Lott is the author of the Penguin Modern Classic 'The Scent of Dried Roses' a memoir which won the prestigious PEN/Ackerley Prize. (His second book, the novel, White City Blue won the Whitbread Award for Best First Novel.)
1. Introduction.
How and why author wrote his prize-winning memoir, a Penguin Modern Classic.
2. Great Memoirs.
What makes a successful memoir? With some of the best-loved memoirs of all time.
3. This is Not Fiction.
What's different? What's the same? How to select material.
4. Research.
Doing the homework. Methods and decision-making.
5. Is it Therapy?
Is memoir therapy? Or more than that? Is it worth writing anyway?
6. Getting Started.
Beginning the memoir. Where to start? How to lay down some 'road.'
7. Practical Matters.
Managing your time and material to write your memoir.
8. The Theme.
Events don't make an interesting story. What's the theme? What's the quest?
9. Selfhood.
Discovering aspects of your identity via memoir.
10. The Story.
Composing and structuring the memoir as a story.
11. The Narrative.
Working with the past and the present. Follow the story with patience and allow for 'clues'.
12. Characterisation.
You as the main character. How to deal with your cast to conjure living people.
13. Time and Place.
'The past is another country'. Remembering and redefining the past on your terms.
14. Ethics.
Exposing yourself and others to the public eye.
15. The End.
Take pride in your achievement, and get published.
Next Steps.
Taking your memoir to publishing standard with our help.
Our Reviews.
We are the home of happy writing. Your confidence will build daily with achievable daily writing counts (slow and steady) and troubleshooting on tap thanks to your tutor on call. Read our testimonials and reviews to reassure yourself that there's no course like this one. You'll be so thrilled you joined us, within days, not weeks from now.
“The Memoir course is fantastic!” Claire Collis, UK.
Am I Writing a Memoir or a Novel?
Good question! It's not always as clear cut as it seems. If you're presenting a highly-unique and interesting (unusual and life-changing) experience which you yourself have had, then it's probably best to go with Memoir. You can present something that may be challenging or even educational for others with credibility and authenticity.
If you're writing about a series of experiences, over the course of your lifetime, you should be writing autobiography but if you'e not in the public eye, the honest truth is it's unlikely to find a publisher.
If you'd like to incorporate a few events you've experienced, which are not particularly life-changing, but you'd like to use them as material for a story about someone else, then it sounds like it's a novel.
What's important, however is that when writing a novel, we are telling someone else's story. Sure, we novelists use our experiences, but it's not about us. If it is, the novel rarely succeeds. If you'd like to write a story about someone else, imagined by yourself, go for our Ninety Day Novel courses.
Gift the Memoir Course.
( It's the very best gift you can give.)
Send the course to someone special.
We will send a personalised gift card from you to your lucky friend and you can choose when they receive it, either instantly or name your date. Find out more at our gift shop here.
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“The best course to write your novel.” The Bookfox.
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