Author: Angela Larkin

LIVE ON ZOOM | Saturdays, 2-4 pm Eastern | Jan 4th and 11th | Nonfiction

Most memoir manuscripts have the same five craft issues. Learn what they are and how to avoid them.

Of course your memoir has unique craft challenges. And yet, most developmental editors – myself included – will tell you that common, identifiable and fixable issues arise in memoirs, again and again. Although most writers can sense when something in the manuscript is falling flat, or we know in our hearts “it’s just not ready yet,” we’re so close to the material that it’s difficult to identify which areas need improvement. 

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In this 2-day seminar, we’ll discuss the most common issues in memoir manuscripts and strategies for addressing them in our own work. You’ll learn a toolbox of revision strategies to apply to your manuscript immediately, including distinguishing “story” versus “situation,” evaluating the use of scene versus summary, and sharpening your opening and closing pages. You will leave the workshop with a more critical editorial lens, a toolbox of revision techniques, and a roadmap for making your memoir agent-ready.

In this seminar you’ll:

• LEARN the five most common issues in memoir manuscripts and how to avoid them.
• DEVELOP a more critical editorial lens toward your work. 
• ASSESS your manuscript for craft issues that might make agents stop reading.
• BUILD a toolbox of revision strategies for making your memoir agent-ready–and improving all your future writing. 

By the end of these two days, you’ll be equipped with a deep understanding of how scenes work, how to sequence scenes to create a dramatic story, and how and when to use summary and reflection to create memorable and meaningful narratives.

This seminar is ideal for…

• Writers looking to understand and apply essential revision strategies
• Writers ready to revise their memoir manuscript with a critical, editorial lens.
• Those who sense areas in their work that need improvement but aren’t sure how to address them.
• Writers who’ve written most or all of a memoir draft and are looking to revise and pitch agents.

Closed captioning is available. ✔

Think you might miss part of the class? No worries, replays will be available. ✔

ABOUT THE INSTRUCTOR

Katie Bannon is a writer, editor, and educator whose work has appeared in The Washington Post, The Rumpus, ELLE Magazine, Narratively, and more. Her memoir manuscript, which charts her journey as a compulsive hair puller, was a finalist for the Permafrost Nonfiction Book Prize. A graduate of GrubStreet’s Memoir Incubator, she holds an MFA in creative nonfiction from Emerson College. She is a developmental editor who loves working with memoirists and essayists on how to write and revise their most vulnerable, taboo stories. She teaches at GrubStreet and lives in Central Massachusetts with her partner and two cats.

Student Testimonials

“Katie is the best writing instructor I have ever had. Her presentation was impeccable. She provided an abundance of ideas, details, examples, and information. In fact, the class was overflowing with information. I have nothing but praise for Katie and the class content.”

“Katie is the best writing instructor I have ever had. Her presentation was impeccable. She provided an abundance of ideas, details, examples, and information. In fact, the class was overflowing with information. I have nothing but praise for Katie and the class content.”

“Holy moly, this was a superb class. Instructor was well-prepared with lots of valuable and well-organized information and ideas. I have already begun applying some of the tools from class to revise—and what a difference it’s making!”

“Katie was an amazing instructor- she explained core concepts with clarity and ease, provided excellent examples and writing samples, and created a very supportive learning environment. The class truly exceeded my expectations!”

The Fine Print

We understand that life can get in the way of your plans. We want you to be able to get the most out of your course, and our refund policy is designed to balance your need for flexibility with our deadlines and obligations to our teachers.

Before the first class, you may request a refund (less a $25 processing fee).

Please keep in mind that no refunds or credits will be issued after class begins.

Questions? Please email Info@craft-talks.com

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Registration Info

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Do you feel like your character isn’t fully speaking to you? Dive deep into the mindset, psychology, motivations, and relationships of your characters to produce stunning results.

To truly capture a character’s voice, motivations, and subtext, it’s essential to imaginatively live in their skin. Characters drive your story, and fully inhabiting their consciousness and uncovering their hidden mysteries will infuse new life into your narrative. This seminar is a guided deep dive into both the inner and outer worlds of your characters.

Through a series of immersive exercises, you’ll start by exploring your character’s outer world in unique ways: drawing, mind-mapping, and sensory charts. These activities will allow you to experience your character’s surroundings in a fresh, impactful manner. You’ll also take a meditative journey into your character’s inner world, exploring how their environment influences their thoughts, reactions, and inner dialogue. This process will help you uncover histories and relationships within your story that you may not have discovered yet.

By the end of this seminar, you’ll feel equipped to live inside your character’s skin, with a repeatable set of exercises and techniques to deeply understand the characters in every story you write. 

There will be a break at the halfway point of our session.

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In this seminar you’ll:

• ENTER a flow state and imaginatively immerse yourself in your character’s world
• MASTER techniques for eliciting emotional depth through setting and past memories
• MEDITATE to explore your character’s emotions and relationships in a profound way
• CREATE a mind-map based on emotion and character motivations, while avoiding forced or inauthentic plot elements
• DEVELOP an ongoing emotional and analytical connection with your character, allowing them to speak to you 
• ALLOW your character to drive the narrative, ensuring their actions remain grounded in their authentic motivations
• DISCOVER character objectives through non-analytical means, so you always understand why your characters do what they do
• REFINE your story’s POV and voice to reflect the evolving discovery of your character
• UTILIZE these exercises to overcome writer’s block and reignite your inspiration

Every registrant will receive a manual of exercises that can be used to continually deepen their character work.

This seminar is ideal for fiction writers in all genres who:

• Feel intimidated or confused about characterization
• Struggle to convey their characters in a lifelike manner
• Feel their characters aren’t speaking to them
• Want to understand their characters’ motivations but aren’t sure where to start
• Seek to go beyond analytical character analysis and fully inhabit their character’s world
• Struggle to emotionally connect with their character’s inner world or bridge the gap between inner and outer worlds
• Are drafting or significantly revising a work-in-progress

Who this class may not be suited for:

The class focuses on delving deeply into both the inner and outer worlds of your character for fiction writers and illustrators. Writers of memoir or narrative nonfiction will need to create their own workarounds for many of the immersive exercises, which is possible but won’t be directly provided by the instructor.

Closed captioning is available. ✔
All registrants receive the recording. ✔

ABOUT YOUR PRESENTER

BRITTA JENSEN’s novel, Eloia Born, won the 2019 Writer’s League of Texas YA Discovery Prize and was long-listed for the Exeter Novel Prize. Subsequent publications include a sequel, Hirana’s War, Ghosts of Yokosuka, and the forthcoming Orphan Pods as well as short stories “Why Not Ophelia” in the Castle Anthology of Horror- Femme Fatales, and “Noise in the Woods” in Mixed Bag of Tricks. Her stories explore themes of persevering through disability, found family, and the intersection of love and various cultures on new worlds. For the past twenty-two years she has taught creative writing and edited books. Friends often refer to her as a polyglot— a product of living twenty-two years overseas in Japan, South Korea, and Germany before settling in Austin, Texas with her awesome capoerista/tailor husband. She loves coaching authors and editing books with The Writing Consultancy and Yellowbird Editors. 

Testimonials from past Character Immersion Workshops for SCBWI, Westbank Library, The Writer’s League of Texas, schools & TWC Workshops:

“I got so much out of the Character Immersion Workshop and can’t wait to use it on more of my characters!” –Lynne Kelly, author of Song for a Whale, The Secret Language of Birds and Chained.

“The class was so rich with ideas and wonderful exercises. Our group will be talking about some of your ideas for weeks to come, I’m sure!”-Maureen Turner Carey, author & librarian, Westbank Library

“I can’t express enough how much this workshop was a breakthrough for me, but for the rest of the characters I have written since. I keep going back to the material because I had been stuck on an important character who was acting only on the surface of herself: she was showing up in the right scenes and saying the right things. When I put her through this Immersion Workshop I discovered her core motivation which will allow a more purposeful character to have much more impact those same scenes and those same lines.”-Marc Hess, author

“A breakthrough for me was better understanding my character through the POV of another. When writing from another character’s POV, so much more was revealed that both clarified and verified things swirling around in my head, but couldn’t yet breakthrough.”-Kellie McCants, author and actor

THE FINE PRINT

We understand that life can get in the way of your plans. We want you to be able to get the most out of your course, and our refund policy is designed to balance your need for flexibility with our deadlines and obligations to our teachers.

Before the class, you may request a full refund.

Please keep in mind that no refunds or credits will be issued after class begins.

Questions? Please email Info@craft-talks.com

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Registration Info

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Event Organizer

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Location