Writing Stories about Ourselves

I am happy to announce that I will be teaching another memoir writing class through the Institute of Continuing Learning, an adult education program at Young Harris College in Young Harris, Georgia.

The class will be taught online using Zoom. I have been teaching these classes online since the pandemic, and I enjoy them. Now that I don't live near Young Harris, GA, I am grateful they allow me to teach through their program. I used to teach there in person, and I will always remember the interesting students I met in my classes. 

Now that my life has taken a significant turn, I am glad I started using Zoom back in 2020. I moved from North Carolina in September of 2024 to north of Atlanta. My sister and generous brother-in-law built an apartment for me in the daylight basement of their house. I have a lovely deck overlooking a small lake where I hear the ducks quacking during the day and see turtles sunning themselves on a floating log in the middle of the water. Trees are thick on both sides of me, so I feel I am in the woods even though I am living in the city.

I continue to work with my writing groups in western NC as Program Coordinator, and the members seem to appreciate my involvement. I assume, when they no longer need my help, they will let me know.

My new class will begin on Monday, June 30, 3 - 5 PM, and continue for the next two Mondays, 3- 5 PM, July 7 and July 14.

To register for the class, go to www.ICLYHC.org and JOIN ICL first. There is a fee of $35.00. Then click on Courses and register for the class. Fee is $25 for the six hours of class. 

The title is Writing Stories about Ourselves. 

In my classes, we write short pieces, a maximum of 2000 words each week, based on prompts I offer the students. We are not writing a memoir in class, but learning how to write our true stories so they will be as interesting as a fictional story. Students learn about characterization, using place or setting to tell the story, using dialogue and action to build tension and keep the reader interested right up to the last word written.

Too many of our memoirs are stuck up on a high shelf in the homes of family members because the writer did not know how to keep the reader entertained and wondering what was going to happen next.

When we open a novel and begin reading, we want the writer to arouse our curiosity on the first page or at least the first chapter, and, if he doesn't, we often put the book aside unread. In today's culture, it is a fact that our attention span has become extremely short. We now read short emails and texts, or watch TV shows that grab us in the first scene, so we want to know what will happen next. Looking at screens all day, scrolling constantly for the next little bit of content has created a difference in how we read books.

In a memoir, we want to tell the truth, the facts, but we must do so in a way that entertains our readers. That is my mission in my classes: to help my students learn how to entertain as well as inform. 

We are storytellers, and we know that a good story has a beginning, a middle, and an end. So our written memories must have the same. 

Join us in our summer classes on Zoom. You meet the nicest people and often form a bond of friendship with someone who was a perfect stranger until you began sharing stories in class.

Remember, you have a unique story and no one can tell that story but you.