Class Overview
Life is full of stories that we’d like to share. Learn how to write your family’s stories with clear, cohesive, and vibrant prose.
Award-winning memoirist E.C. Murray will guide you in this supportive and rewarding class. Learn how to select the most compelling, funny, or profound experiences for you or your family. Discover ways to frame your stories that will engage the reader. Explore how you can present characters/people authentically, write lucid descriptions, and incorporate an arc in the flow of your memories.
This experience can be a gratifying exploration that results in documents you can keep and share with other family members if you choose. If you are already writing and want tools and support to develop your stories, this class is a great fit. Class balances student participation, connection, lecture, and in-class writing in a warm, safe, and fun environment.
Learning Objectives
- Write your memories and those of your family (or people who feel like family) in an engaging manner for you and others to enjoy now and in years to come.
- Create a cohesive whole out of a myriad of random or scattered memories.
- Write vividly about characters, yourself, or the people in your life, including behavior and motivations.
- Employ prose which will keep your readers (whether grandchild or stranger) enthralled.
- Express the uniqueness of your story as well as its universality.
- Overcome bumps in your writing process such as the dreaded writer's block.
Who Might Enjoy This Class
- Anyone who wants to write down their family memories or record their family history – whether you have started or not
- People who have begun writing family stories and have gotten stuck, or would benefit from support to continue and to shape their writing
- Writers who like to connect to others through their writing
- Readers and writers who enjoy family histories and memoirs
- Anyone who writes in their journals, and would like to take the next step in their writing