Writing Stories About Ourselves

Creative nonfiction writers will be exploring traditional storytelling techniques, particularly those that overlap with memoir and fiction. We'll be looking at examples from many genres including song, film, painting, and even the Jaws theme music! This course will help us develop the creative muscle to see ourselves as characters, and the stories we have lived. The essential elements of storytelling will be discussed, including how to start a story, how to use detail, the limits and strengths of dialogue, and the power of white space. Our ultimate goal is to be able to recognize an audience when we write so that our documentation of our lives can begin to look more like a performance on paper than a private journal entry.