Every spring and fall, Linda Joy and Brooke teach a new best-selling memoir class. These four-week courses combine the best a book club has to offer, with solid craft techniques for writers, showcasing what these best-selling memoirists did right—and what you can learn from studying popular writers’ work.
Here’s what we’ve taught so far!
What Made Wild a Bestseller?
This class showcases some of the things Strayed does brilliantly—structure, transitions, flashbacks vs. memory, and reflection—so that you can begin to use these skills in your own writing.
GET THE FULL COURSE DESCRIPTION HERE.
CD + transcript (four hours of content) — $29.95 + shipping & handling
VIA DROPBOX: CD + transcript (four hours of content): $29.95 (no shipping)
What Made Eat, Pray, Love a Bestseller?
In this class, you will learn the skills Gilbert brings to this classic bestselling memoir, and discover for yourself how to make your own memoir shine by employing these craft techniques into your own writing.
GET THE FULL COURSE DESCRIPTION HERE.
CD + transcript (four hours of content) — $29.95 + shipping & handling
VIA DROPBOX: CD + transcript (four hours of content): $29.95 (no shipping)
What Made The Glass Castle a Bestseller?
Drawing upon the lessons in reading The Glass Castle, the best-selling memoir by Jeannette Walls, this course examines memory and writing dark truths; structure and takeaway; Voice of Innocence vs. Voice of Experience; and themes.
GET THE FULL COURSE DESCRIPTION HERE.
CD + transcript (four hours of content) — $29.95 + shipping & handling
VIA DROPBOX: CD + transcript (four hours of content): $29.95 (no shipping)
What Made Angela’s Ashes a Bestseller?
Angela’s Ashes is one of the most beloved memoirs of all times. Frank McCourt uniquely managed to write about the horrors of his upbringing while still delivering a universal message. In this four weeks, we cover scene and narrative; character development and characterization; and memoir craft (including themes and through-threads, anchoring and seeding; context and contextual reminders). This course also covers the fallout from writing memoir, both Frank’s specific troubles and well as issues you might encounter as you write your own memoir.
THIS CLASS IS STILL BEING TRANSCRIBED. AVAILABLE SOON!
What Made The Liar’s Club a Bestseller?
The Liars’ Club is one of the classic memoirs that started the Memoir Revolution. As a reader, you identify with her raucous, dangerous family. Her honest exploration of sex, guns, and alcohol pushes the boundaries of what we might think we’re allowed to write, giving the rest of us creative inspiration and permission around what’s possible for us with our own writing. Karr’s a trustworthy narrator of tragedy and trauma, sprinkling hope and compassion throughout—the perfect recipe for a compelling memoir.
THIS CLASS IS STILL BEING TRANSCRIBED. AVAILABLE SOON!
Helen MacDonald’s H Is for Hawk has all the hallmarks of good memoir—and we intend to cast a light on what she does so brilliantly to help you uncover the gems in your own memoir. From a well-executed arc, to weaving together multiple themes that fluidly intermingle and inform the story, to prose that sings on the page (demonstrating the power of showing through sensual description), H Is for Hawk has it all. Join us on this four-week journey into the heart of the latest memoir sensation. See what all the fuss is about, and pick up some valuable tools along the way.
GET THE FULL COURSE DESCRIPTION and BUY THIS COURSE HERE.
At the heart of addiction memoirs is a single issue—the dependence on a substance that impacts everything. Whether you’re writing about alcohol or drug addiction, love or sex addiction, or even surviving abuse (because it similarly seeps into every aspect of life), understanding how the issue-driven memoir works will help you get a better handle on your story-telling to make it more appealing to publishers and relevant to your readers. In this course, we feature two best-selling memoirs—Smashed and Drinking: A Love Story—to show how each of these issue-driven memoirs handle craft and takeaway, and how the writers tackle cultural observations, revelations, and self-exposure.
THIS CLASS IS STILL BEING TRANSCRIBED. AVAILABLE SOON!
5 SECRETS OF MEMOIR WRITING
CD + transcript (one hour of content) — $9.95 + shipping & handling
Linda Joy and Brooke share their top five secrets of memoir writing in this hour-long conversation. Whether you’re an aspiring memoirist or have a complete draft, you want to understand these skills and connections and leverage them in your own memoir. This conversation will leave you inspired, and also with some clear ideas about how to effect some powerful changes in your memoir.
CD + transcript (one hour of content) — $9.99 + shipping & handling
VIA DROPBOX: CD + transcript (four hours of content): $9.99 (no shipping)