Growing Your Idea with Victoria Zackheim

Saturday, April 20th, 1-4pm

We've all been struck by that creative idea -- but what to do with it? Perhaps you began with thoughts of an essay or short story...but could your idea also be developed into a memoir, screenplay, poem, documentary or novel?

In this lively workshop, we'll explore the many possibilities of your idea, with each participant receiving individual feedback from the instructor. Students will have time to explore different genres, write and share their work for additional feedback.

Victoria Zackheim wrote The Bone Weaver, a novel, and edited five anthologies, including the bestselling The Other Woman, and her most recent: Exit Laughing: How Humor Takes the Sting Out of Death. The Other Woman was adapted to a play and was under development at the Berkeley Rep. Victoria's screenplay about a prison breakout in Northern Ireland is in pre-production with Identity Films, and she has written several documentary films, including Where Birds Never Sang, now airing on PBS nationwide. Victoria teaches in the UCLA Extension Writers' Program and is a frequent speaker and instructor at writers' conferences and organizational events throughout the United States. She is a freelance editor and a 2010 San Francisco Library Laureate.

The Three Stages of Memoir Writing—From Memory to Memoir with Linda Joy Myers

Saturday, May 11th, 1-4pm

Writing a memoir is a journey, from the snapshots of memory to a story that offers the reader powerful themes and messages that are entertaining and life changing. And what a journey it is, starting with your passion to write your story, making your way through the "Muddy Middle," and finally getting to "The End." 

Memoir writers need answers to these kinds of questions:

• Where do I begin?
• What about my family?
• What is my truth and dare I write it?
• How do I structure my memoir?
• How do I go from writer to author with a memoir in this market?
• Do I have to learn about social media?
• Why would someone want to read my story?
• And more…

This workshop will take you through the stages of memoir writing. We will discuss these important topics, and do exercises to clarify your memoir and its message, where to begin, and how to find your themes. We will discuss truth, lies, and secrets, and how to manage family and inner critic voices. Structure, the narrative arc, and how to decide what publishing path you want will fill these three hours with information that you need to write and publish your memoir.

Linda Joy Myers, Ph.D., MFA, is the President and founder of the National Association of Memoir Writers, an Instructor at Writers Digest, Co-President of the Women’s National Book Association, San Francisco branch, and past president of the California Writers Club, Marin branch. Linda is the author of The Power of Memoir—How to Write Your Healing Story, Becoming Whole and Don’t Call Me Mother, which won the Bay Area Independent Publishing Association Gold Medal prize. She is co-editor of the upcoming anthology Times They Were A'Changing, a collection of women's stories from the 60s and 70s. Linda has won prizes for fiction, memoir and poetry: First Prize, Jessamyn West Fiction Contest; Finalist, San Francisco Writing Contest for Secret Music, a novel about the Kindertransport; First Prize, poetry, East of Eden Contest, and for memoir writing First Prize Carol Landauer Life Writing Contest. Linda’s new workbook is The Journey of Memoir: The Three Stages of Memoir Writing. She gives workshops nationally, through NAMW, Story Circle, and the Therapeutic Writing Institute, and helps people capture their stories through coaching, editing, and online workshops.