Write Your Memoirs

Write For Your Life!

a workshop on how to write compelling memoirs

Presenter: Susan Lynn Reynolds

May 2nd, 2009
10:00 to 4:30 p.m.

Oshawa

Is there something about your life you’re longing to share? Were you part of a historical event that you could cast a personal and illuminating light on?

Have you dreamt of creating a memoir or autobiography for your children or grandchildren, letting them know what the world was like when you were growing up or starting out? If you’ve ever wanted to put your memories down on paper but don’t know where to start or how to finish, this course is for you.

Using the techniques of Writing Practice, Susan Lynn Reynolds will be leading an all day session that will distill your memories into writer’s ink and help you begin setting them down on paper and crafting them into a cohesive memoir.

This workshop will focus on techniques for getting original memories down in all their sensuous detail, and riveting your reader in the process. There will be discussion on how to recognize the possibilities for short fiction in your writing as well.

Participants will leave the workshop having written and read their work, having listened to the lives of others and had their own work and lives listened to.

Material covered will include:

– the difference between an autobiography and a memoir
– how to determine your readership
– a format for accessing your memories
– the difference between the creative and the editorial process
– at least 4 writing exercises
– how to organize your work into a finished presentation for your family, an agent or a publisher
– assigned homework and follow-up critiquing
– a series of take-home exercises to keep up the momentum gained in this workshop

Susan Lynn Reynolds, BSc. Psyc., has been a published author since 1991. Her first novel, Strandia,won the Canadian Library Association’s National Award for YA fiction in 1992. She is a three-time winner of the Timothy Findley Creative Writing Prize for her short fiction and her poetry. She is an accredited writing facilitator in the AWA method and has been leading writing and creativity groups for 12 years. Currently she teaches writing every week in the Lindsay provincial jail where her focus is on writing for therapeutic benefit. This program she pioneered won her the 2007 June Callwood Award for Outstanding Volunteerism.

Cost of Workshop: $75.00

What to Bring:
A notebook and a fast writing pen and your memories

To Register:

Write for Your Life – Memoirs – WCDR member $75.00

Write for Your Life – Memoirs – WCDR member $85.00

Please call Sue at 905-243-4836 or contact her through the form below.

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In the summer of 2013 I was invited to do a TEDtalk on “Shining the light on our Changing Communities”. I talked about the therapeutic writing program I do with incarcerated women. You can view the talk here.

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