Get Started on Your Memoir by Taking an Online Course.

Enthusiasm for writing your  memoir may soon be replaced by a sinking feeling when you realize that you don’t know where to start and how to proceed. Memoirs are considered to be somewhat different from autobiographies. Brian A. Klems, the online managing editor of Writer’s Digest magazine, points out:

In some general contexts, memoir and autobiography can be used interchangeably. In fact, Amazon.com puts them in the same category. But there’s a key difference that publishers use to define each—the timeline covered in the writing.

An autobiography focuses on the chronology of the writer’s entire life while a memoir covers one specific aspect of the writer’s life. So, if I chose to write about my complete life up to this point—including growing up in Cincinnati, my time in New York, the few years I spent in Chicago and eventually landing at Writer’s Digest—I’d write an autobiography. If wrote a book about the winter of my sophomore year in high school where I got my tongue stuck to an icy pole, I’d write a memoir

If it’s a memoir you’re writing, then a great way to get started  is to take a course.  In many communities you can find workshops and courses on memoir writing. If you’d rather do it from the comfort of your home, I’ve assembled a list of four online memoir writing courses.  I can’t vouch for any of these because I haven’t used them but check them out. I’m sure you’ll find a course that fits your needs.

• The Story Circle Network has been offering classes, workshops, conferences, writing and reading circles, and online programs—all designed for women—since 1997.

• Memoir: The “Eye” and the “I”. Stanford Continuing Studies. “In this course you will learn how to unearth significant material and bring your memories to life on the page.”

• Online Memoir Writing Classes. Gotham Writer’s Workshop. “You will learn how to focus your life stories, give them literary purpose, and apply such craft elements as character, plot, description, dialogue, setting, pacing, and theme.  You will also learn how and where to market your work.”

• UC Berkeley Extension – Introduction to Memoir Writing.  “Through reading and writing exercises, you explore the shifting landscape of memory and the creative license that it affords you on the page.”

Photo by F. Delventhal

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