Interested in this course? Sign up for our waitlist here to find out when it’s running again. In the meantime, check out our list of current courses or sign up for our Newsbite weekly newsletter for updates.

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.

The memoirist’s lived experience provides the raw material for their writing. But how do you shape that material into something greater than a series of recollections? How do you craft a cohesive, compelling narrative arc from messy and possibly long ago events, and the quiet moments our lives often turn on?

Join author Ashley Kalagian Blunt for a practical workshop filled with writing exercises, analysis of memoir extracts, and discussion. You’ll learn strategies for getting your first draft down and approaches for tackling the serious task of revision, including what narrative structure is and how it works when writing from real life.

We’ll also consider how to balance the holy trinity of memoir narrative – scene, summary, and musing. By the end, you’ll have new insights into the craft of memoir, and a variety of tools and resources to support you.

Is this course right for you? Read our FAQ >

This workshop takes place at Writing NSW in Sydney.

Listen to Ashley talk about crafting memoir on the Writer’s Book Club Podcast!

Expected learning outcomes

In this workshop, participants will:

• Learn strategies for wrangling your first draft onto the page – and where to go from there
• Discover how to shape lived experience into a narrative arc and why this matters
• Differentiate between scene, summary and musing, and know how to craft all three
• Practice generative exercises to help you connect with your most creative self and delve deep into the underlying emotion of your writing
• Leave with a cheat sheet of resources for ongoing support.

Participant requirements

Please read our FAQ before enrolling.

This workshop provides an introduction to memoir craft. Participants might be well into a memoir draft, or looking for guidance and encouragement before getting started. Please bring pen and paper, or fully charged device.

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

More from Writing NSW

Check out our full range of in-person writing courses in Sydney, our online writing courses and our feedback programs to see how we can help you on your writing journey. Find out about our grants and prizes, as well as writing groups across NSW, and sign up to our weekly newsletter for writing events, opportunities and giveaways.