I know from emails to me as well as occasional comments on this blog that many of you are writers, a fact of which I’m extremely proud. I’m a writer myself and know full well how rare, how precious a commodity time is, especially as most of you are probably not full-time writers and therefore must juggle day jobs, family obligations, friend obligations, social engagements, housekeeping, and general life tasks, so I’m so grateful that you would choose to devote even just a few seconds of your schedule to reading my little blog.
If you’re at all interested in writing a memoir, are simply curious about that particular genre, or would like to stretch your skills by engaging in a different type of writing from what you’re currently practicing, you might want to try this online memoir writing course sponsored by Mediabistro.com and taught by memoirist and former Cottage Living food editor Kim Sunee.
Longtime My Inner French Girl readers might also remember Ms. Sunee as the author of Trail of Crumbs: Hunger, Love, and the Search for Home
I’ll be taking the course myself — assuming I’m accepted, as I believe applicants must first apply for a slot — and hope some of you might consider it as well. It’s not cheap — $599 for the general public, $575 for AvantGuild members (AvantGuild being the professional membership group sponsored by Mediabistro.com; it only costs $55 or so for an annual membership to AV, though, and you don’t have to be a full-time or even part-time professional writer in order to be a member, just someone interested in the media community) — but if you’ve been looking to invest in your writing career by enrolling in a structured writing course this year, this might be a good option for you. I’ve never actually taken a Mediabistro.com course before and am anxious to begin. It starts in mid-September, I believe, so you still have time to think about it.
By the way, the New York City-based Gotham City Writers’ Workshop also offers tons of online writing classes and are generally much cheaper than Mediabistro.com. The University of California’s Extension Writers Program has online and in-person classes and often feature well-known writers, particularly in their screenwriting courses. Plenty of state and local universities around the country offer similar programs, so it might be worth checking out what your area institutions might have, which ma
y be cheaper but equal to these programs in terms of quality of instruction. Although I would prefer the camaraderie and interactivity of an in-person, live course, circumstances and finances dictate that I stick with the online versions for now.
I love that so many Francophiles are also literary mavens! That’s certainly not surprising, given that some of the most iconic, most memorable French women have been writers and intellectuals: Francoise Sagan, Mireille Guiliano, Colette, George Sand, Simone de Beauvoir, Marguerite Duras, among countless others. French women may only recently have been given the right to vote, and misogynism and sexism may still be alive and well in many sectors of French society, but there’s no doubt that the educational and cultural system in the country has produced some exceptional minds and works.
I’m still working on the novel, that ever-present, menacing shadow over my shoulder, but I’m also in the beginning stages of an entirely different book. It’s nonfiction, and although my background is as a newspaper columnist and magazine writer, it’s surprisingly been almost as challenging to write in this genre as it has been to plow through the novel. Obviously, the biggest difference between the two genres is that one is “true” and one is “not true” (and admittedly, those are terrible and somewhat inaccurate definitions for the words “non-fiction” and “fiction,” respectively, but that’s what I’ll stick with for the purposes of this post!), but the differences end there. A good book must still have some form of structure, something upon which to “hang” the varying elements, scenes and characters, otherwise it’s just one holy mess, as a friend would say.
Parts of the novel are still “one holy mess,” but some are quite good, if I might say so myself. Although the Sunee course will focus on memoir-writing rather than creative fiction, I hope to glean some good insights on the craft of writing itself that can apply to the act of writing novels as well as memoir.
What about you? I’m always curious about the writing projects and habits of fellow writers, both published and yet-to-be. What type of writing are you engaged in? Have any projects in the pipeline that you care to share with the world? Writers are a notoriously gossipy bunch, a trait I cherish as I think it’s just an extension of our love for storytelling, so I want to hear your stories!
Photo: Francoise Sagan, photographer unknown.
No related posts.
Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.
{ 6 comments }
We're lucky in Chicago to have Carol LaChapelle teaching classes in memoir at Newberry Library. I just finished her 6 week class, have second drafts of two pieces and first drafts of three others. I recommend her book, Finding Your Voices, Telling Your Stories. That said, I have pages of memoir in this drawer and that box and perhaps will someday have enough respect for myself and what I've written to gather them up and put in one notebook!
Dear Ann, bonjour, and merci for your recommendations! That's incredible that you have a lot of work already in the pipeline!
I've been trying to find books about memoir lately, so your recommendation is coming in handy. I'll definitely look for it at the library tomorrow.
Like you I have journals and photographs I have to sift through to get my next project ready. I don't think it's as much self-respect, though, as it is just self-preservation. Some of this stuff is going to be challenging to work through, shall we say, but it'll be an interesting experience. I thought that the writing itself would be the difficult part, but now I'm thinking it's actually the reliving of all these memories that will be the real kicker. Is that what you're finding?
Salut,
Marjorie
Lucky you to have journals! When I write memoir I try to be as truthful as I can be. If writing dialogue, I'm careful to be as close to what I think was said as possible. But the mind is not a computer. I could have sworn some articles I read in The New Yorker after my son was born were written by Nabokov. (After all, the subject was Russia and butterflies.) My sleuthing turned up an American-Russian author had written those articles about a grand-uncle. Yet, I remember my apartment, my baby, the content so vividly! But, perhaps impressionism is one of the charms of memoir.
Yes, delving into emotional upset is difficult and it's why I'm dragging my feet with some of the first drafts. Writing light and funny is so much easier, but our lives are not all sweetness and sunshine. C'est la guerre.
Dear Ann, I might end up engaging in some "truthiness" once I start editing this thing!
My memory is very strange. I pride myself on my excellent memory, but then my brothers remind me that what I think actually happened was really a dream that I had. Bummer.
Thank god for journals, but I got rid of some critical ones during a tragic bout of purging in the mid-1990's, so I'm having to recreate some important episodes from memory. I just reviewed a memoir for MIFG (today's edition) wherein the writer alluded to interviews she conducted with people she mentions in her book, and I'm wondering if I should do the same thing. Fortunately, one person who does figure significantly in the book is very accessible (my husband), and he's offered to read some entries in his journal that are pertinent to my book. (Although he won't let me read the whole thing. Bummer again, but I probably shouldn't read it all anyway. Some things should be kept secret between even husbands and wives, eh?)
Probably what ends up happening with memoirs — even with the most vividly remembered, well-documented ones — is that they're all really just "versions of the truth." Have you ever had what you thought was a clear memory of an event, only to find out later that someone else involved has an entirely different memory of it? Very strange, but very common.
By the way, have you published your memoir yet? I'd love to read it!
Salut,
Marjorie
I'm not published, unless a holiday memory, "Murphy's Hat and Christmas Mass" published in the local paper counts.
I read something I wrote about my father's death at a family get-together not long ago. It got very quiet. After finishing, the quiet deepened. For once, my brothers and I didn't have a thing to argue about. My memory, which included them, was spot on.
I normally have a different view of things, being the oldest and the only girl. One brother, the successful one, is usually threatened by my viewpoint. I hope what I write will be handed down and valued as much as money.
A bientot, Ann
Dear Ann, it totally counts!
That's interesting about your brother. I'm the oldest of three and am the only girl as well. My brothers, whom I love dearly, have a different opinion of our family history as well, and sometimes that can cause tension. I'm not writing about family history, though. Not yet, anyway. I'm waiting until the bodies are buried.
I'm very sorry about your father's death. My dad died 25 years ago, and although I didn't know him very well, I still occasionally ache for him. My condolences to you and your family.
By the way, I put in the request for that memoir writing book at the library. I can't wait to read it! Nancy Mehagian, who wrote Siren's Feast (which I reviewed on MIFG), also recommended Your Life as Story, by Tristine Rainer. She apparently also edited Anais Nin's diaries.
Salut,
Marjorie
Comments on this entry are closed.