Participants in face to face courses must be fully vaccinated against COVID-19 and must comply with any other precautionary measures Writing NSW puts in place.

Is it possible to tell the truth and keep your family, friends and dignity relatively intact? Does everything have to be revealed? How far can a writer go in creating life-like situations? Can anything be invented in memoir? And what are the main pitfalls in structuring a memoir – a more importantly, how do I avoid them?

We will look at the very real reasons for avoiding the truth, navigate the borderlands with fiction, explore ways of telling the truth and surviving – and find ways to sort out structural problems. This workshop offers creative guidance and writing exercises. We will not be looking at individual manuscripts, but discussing some of the issues and offering creative and practical solutions.

Is this course right for you? Read our FAQ >

Expected learning outcomes

Participants will:

1. Explore and understand the difficulties of truth-telling
2. Learn to navigate the borderlands between memoir and fiction
3. Learn all about structural trouble-shooting of their memoir manuscript.

This workshop takes place at Writing NSW in Sydney.

Participant requirements

Please read our FAQ before enrolling.

This workshop is an advanced masterclass for people who have already made a start on their memoir/creative non-fiction manuscript. Pen and paper, laptop optional. Participants are asked to bring a copy of ‘Writing True Stories’ by Patti Miller, which can be purchased here.

If you have questions about this course and/or COVID-safe guidelines, please contact us.

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