Write your memoir
What’s your story? And who do you want to share it with?
Capture your memories, life experiences and lessons on the page to pass on to your kids, to share with your community, with the world — or just do it for yourself.
This is a 3-month course with a small number of participants, designed to kickstart your memoir-writing journey. Along the way you’ll write a whole lot of material for your memoir, receive constructive feedback on your work, develop your writing skills and processes, and connect with other writers.
The course takes a maximum of four participants.
What the first group of memoir writers said
“Jessie asked the right questions and encouraged conversation within the group which offered alternate perspectives. Trying to write your memoirs on your own will never be as deep or as revealing. Thank you Jessie for poking and prodding. And thank you for your kindness, your non-judgemental attitude and for providing a safe space to discuss those hidden memories.”
“The memoir course proved to be a growth journey in a lovely company. Now that the course is completed, I feel like I have the tools to continue writing my memoirs knowing where and how to look back. I don’t feel an intractable task before me, instead, I see an achievable and enjoyable way forward.”
“When is the second memoir course starting? I’d like to do another round!”
Is this course for me?
If you want to make a solid dent in writing your memoir — then yes!
You don’t need to be an established writer, or have any particular writing experience. The focus of the course is getting your story onto the page: we get started with the tools we have, and learn techniques along the way.
What does this course include?
This is a 3-month course delivered online via Zoom, with:
13 x group sessions to guide your memoir-writing journey
3 x 1-on-1 coaching sessions to help you refine your work
access to Write With Me sessions to give you time and space to write
writing resources
support between sessions
member discounts on other Write Kelley services
From the first guided session, we dive in with practical assignments alongside instruction. Prompts focus our discussion and writing, but there is flexibility for each writer to follow their own unique story path.
All sessions are live — this is not a pre-recorded course.
The memoir group is run for 2–4 participants, for an intimate setting with flexibility to address everyone’s questions and challenges. The writing sessions are confidential spaces.
Writing assignments are given each week, to put your new skills and ideas into practice, and push your memoir project forward between sessions.
The Write With Me sessions have a mix of writers working on diverse projects. There is some group discussion and development of productivity skills, but the focus is having time to write independently.
This course does not include publishing or commercial advice.
What will I learn?
Throughout the course, we will learn and practice how to:
play with storytelling techniques
know what to prioritise in your writing
turn your ideas into pages
structure your memoir
develop your personal writing style
deal with ethical considerations
trust your author intuition
revise your own work
push past writing blocks
What will I have at the end of the course?
Depending on how much time you can commit to your writing, you may have a complete first draft of your memoir.
At a minimum however, you’ll have a lot of great material to continue building on, as well as plenty of new writing and productivity skills in your toolkit.
You’ll also be part of a community of diverse writers from both the memoir and Write With Me groups, which you can keep connected to long after the course ends.
To support your writing beyond the course, you’ll also receive member discounts for future Write With Me sessions, editing and 1-on-1 coaching.