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Course fees: £4,000
The memoir is now the fastest-evolving form of literature, and one of the most widely read. In recent years, the traditionally linear autobiography has been transformed by numerous inventive new genres. From prize-winning creative non-fiction to celebrity tell-alls and confessional misery-lit, memoirs have generated critical exaltation, controversy and some serious sales. No longer the sole province of the nostalgic famous, a memoir doesn’t have to cover a whole life - it can explore the details of a personal triumph, an illness, a relationship, a divorce, or a job.
Having a story to tell is the first step in writing a memoir. Knowing how to tell it requires a lot of hard work. This comprehensive course will teach you everything you need to know to embark on your own project. Working with your tutor, you’ll tackle the all-important question of what to share, and what to leave out.
Through a programme of talks and practical workshops, you’ll learn how to structure your story so it best frames your personal experience, and hone your writing style to build an intimate bond with your readers.
The course also addresses the memoir’s unique ethical concerns, such as the potential impact of writing openly about close family – something Rachel Cusk and Julie Myerson have grappled with – and whether or not it’s acceptable to mix fiction with fact to make a story more compelling, a device for which Dave Eggers’ A Heartbreaking Work Of Staggering Genius and James Frey’s A Million Little Pieces received very different receptions.
After 24 weeks, you’ll have written at least the first chapter of your memoir, and will have received invaluable critical feedback on your project to help you build your skills for the future. You will also have met professionals within the field, including a guest author, editor and agent.
If you’re interested in signing up for How to write a memoir and would like more information please email masterclasses.support@theguardian.com or contact us on +44 (0) 20 3353 3099 between 9.30am and 5.30pm, Monday to Friday. If you’d like us to contact you, please click here and tell us what time works best for you.
Course programme
This outline is a guide to the course. Everything will be covered but there will be some flexibility in shifting things around according to the flow of the workshops and the needs of the students.
Please note that the course will take place in four, 6-week semesters.
Weeks 1–6: Part One, Discovering Memoir
Session 1: Introductions - Monday 5th October
Discussion of purpose and structure of the course. A brief outline of the history of memoir and autobiography. What is your favourite memoir? Each writer is asked to come with a short review of their favourite memoir which they will present to the group. No more than 600 words excluding short extracts. We will also discuss the practical difficulties of writing and do an introductory exercise in class.
Session 2: Opening up - Monday 12th October
We will dive in to the business of writing about our lives with a scene on a suggested theme. This will open us up to a key element of writing memoir: learning to be honest about our own experience. We will discuss the practice of being a writer.
Session 3: Significant others - Monday 19th October
You’re not just writing about you, you’re writing about them – other people in your life. You might be afraid of them or in love with them, estranged or close. How do you bring them to life? How might they feel about this? Do you have an ethical obligation when writing about family members, colleagues, friends, etc? Does it make a difference if they’re living or dead? Are there legal questions allied to moral concerns? We will look at the work of Rachel Cusk and Julie Myerson amongst others.
Session 4: Narrative - Monday 26th October
Initial discussion of how narrative works in memoir. We will discuss different possible structures, as well as story patterns traced in memoir. These include ‘growing up’, ‘growing old’, ‘being trapped’, ‘getting away’ and ‘finding freedom’. What arc does your memoir follow? Can it be made to fit one? Should it? And how should your story be presented? First or third person – or even second person, as in Jay MacInerney’s Bright Lights, Big City. Another in-class exercise will allow us to experiment with these ideas for ourselves.
Session 5: Dialogue - Monday 2nd November
We will examine how dialogue works within scenes. How can you enrich scenes from the past with telling and convincing dialogue. How do you accurately remember how people from your past spoke – and how do you get round this? Another exercise will loosen up our dialogue muscles and show that these problems are not insurmountable.
Session 6: Outlining your project - Monday 9th November
This week each writer comes with a 500 word scene or section from their memoir and a one-page outline. We discuss the big decision of privileging the self above others and telling your story. Your story doesn’t necessarily start where you think it does. You are the main character in your own story—you will be encouraged to use the craft of fiction to bring your memoir alive.
Weeks 7-12: Part Two, Exploring Memoir
Session 7: Working with memory - Monday 16th November
We will look at the business of how we remember and pull down true and valid insights from our past. Strategies for stimulating memory. Interviewing sources. Revisiting key locations. Looking at diaries, official records, letters, e-mails. An in-class exercise will demonstrate how we can interrogate our memory to bring back the details otherwise forgotten. We also discuss how this process will affect your existing memories – and possibly destroy them. As well we ask: whose truth is it anyway?
Session 8: Fraudulent memoir and ‘fact’ - Monday 23rd November
The dangerous attraction of making it all up. Discussion of James Frey’s Million Little Pieces & Sheila Heti’s How Should A Person Be? To what extent can a writer of non-fiction invent material, and what are the ethics surrounding that? We will consider also the memoir-like ‘fiction’ of Karl Ove Knausgaard.
Session 9: Developing your subject - Monday 30th November
Participants will bring in a second 500 word scene, one which is key to the unfolding narrative, a ‘turning-point’ scene. Building on this we will discuss how we shape our narrative further. Scenes and summaries. At what point do your themes/patterns/images emerge (about family, about class, about the relation between personal and public history)? When does a story emerge and how can you shape it?
Session 10: Tutorials - Monday 7th December
Individual tutorial sessions.
Session 11: Tutorials - Monday 14th December
Individual tutorial sessions.
Christmas break
Session 12: Mid-course review & editor visit - Monday 11th January
Where have you got to with your memoir? What have you discovered about memoir as a genre? What have you discovered about your story? What directions do you think you want to take? Are you happy with the course content and direction? We will welcome a non-fiction editor to talk about memoirs they have commissioned and worked on.
This section of the course ends with the submission of a 2000 word piece.
Weeks 13-18: Part Three, Developing Memoir
Session 13: Discovering your voice - Monday 18th January
You know who you are. How do I know? We know each other well enough to know how we sound in person but what about on the page? Should the two voices be the same? How do you find an authentic voice for your memoir? We will consider the role of dialogue in this. We will choose five students for the workshop next week.
Session 14: Workshopping - Monday 25th January
Workshop devoted to five of the writers and their 2,000 words. All classmates to respond constructively in class. Approx 30 mins each student—be sure to come to class having read and edited all five texts for that week.
Session 15: Workshopping - Monday 1st February
Workshop devoted to remaining five writers and their 2,000 words. Approx 30 mins each student—be sure to come to class having read and edited all five texts for that week. Homework for next week is reading the work of guest author.
Session 16: Developing your story and process: guest author visit - Monday 8th February
Guest author to be confirmed. We’ll be focussing on the new and deeper issues that have arisen from the work we’ve done so far and talking honestly about process. Set homework: write 500 words about a subject or character you find difficult within your story – and have so far avoided writing.
Session 17: Coping with and confronting ‘what comes up’ - Monday 15th February
Discussion and reading of ‘500 words you have so far avoided writing’. Memoir raises unique emotional challenges. Getting help with what comes up. Coping personally and professionally. Strategies for remembering, reliving and getting on with your life in the present. Deciding what (not) to share. Boundaries & limits.
Session 18 - Monday 22nd February
Short Individual Tutorial Sessions – 20 mins each (1-2-1).
Weeks 19-24: Part Four, Speak, Memory
Session 19: Finishing, presenting, publishing - Monday 29th February
Discussion of both the 5000 word final assessment piece and the optional proposal. Explanation of timelines and grading process. How to write a proposal that will impress agents and publishers. Mark McC to circulate various proposals for books that were bought by publishers. Alternatives - brief guide to self-publishing.
Session 20: Crafting your proposal – agent visit - Monday 7th March
Preparing work for publication and submitting proposals. Writing blurbs and considering your project in terms of a two-line pitch. Talk from a literary agent who has significant experience in memoir. Set homework: writing your proposals.
Session 21: Workshopping - Monday 14th March
Five writers present their proposal to the class. Approx 30 mins each. If any student doesn’t wish to do a proposal we can discuss a 2000 word piece of writing instead.
Session 22: Workshopping - Monday 21st March
Five writers present their proposal to the class. Approx 30 mins each. If any student doesn’t wish to do a proposal we can discuss a 2000 word piece of writing instead
Session 23: Final readings - Monday 28th March
Five students read 1000 words of their final assessment piece. Constructive criticism from the group.
Session 24: Final readings and course review - Monday 4 April
Five students read 1000 words of their final assessment piece. Constructive criticism from the group. Course review. Group Social. Deadline submission of final assessment piece (to include optional proposal — this will be edited but not graded). Within four weeks you receive pass OR fail.
Profile of the tutor
Mark McCrum has published fifteen books, including five top ten bestsellers. His pop biography of Robbie Williams, Somebody Someday, was a no.1 in both hardback and paperback and sold over a million copies. As a ghost writer he has worked on memoirs for subjects ranging from the victims of paedophilia to survivors of forced marriage. He worked with Bruce Parry on his autobiographical bestseller Tribe. Mark’s most recent book was Walking With The Wounded, an account of the successful attempt of four wounded soldiers to reach the North Pole unsupported. He has done talks and workshops about ghost writing for the Cambridge Wordfest, Shetland’s Wordplay, Dartington’s Ways With Words, and both the Bath and Isle of Wight literary festivals. Next year he will be teaching as a Royal Literary Fellow at Queen Mary University, London.
Timings and specifics
The course will have places for 12 participants who will meet for one three-hour session per week (6.30pm-9.30pm) for a period of six months at the Guardian building at Kings Place, London N1 9GU.
The deadline for sign-up is Monday 28th September 2015.
Booking process
The course is non-selective and will operate on a first come, first served basis. To register, please email masterclasses.support@theguardian.com or call +44 (0) 20 3353 3099 between 10am and 5.30pm, Monday to Friday.
Assessment
Writers who successfully complete the course will receive a successful completion certificate from UEA. The course will be a pass or fail. This will be determined by ongoing assessment and a final submission of 5,000 words.
Refunds
Refunds will not be given to students who miss sessions or drop out of the course once the full fee has been paid.
More information
If you would like more information about the course or have any questions please email masterclasses.support@theguardian.com or call +44 (0) 20 3353 3099 between 10am and 5.30pm, Monday to Friday. If you’d like us to contact you, please click here and tell us what time works best for you.
