Jerry WaxlerWhere: Manayunk Art Center, 419 Green Lane, Philadelphia
When: Saturday March 13, 2010, 9am-5pm
Fee: $75 includes all-day workshop and lunch (max. 20 participants); $65 for students, seniors
In this workshop, Jerry Waxler will teach you step-by-step techniques to convert tangled, vague, and disconnected memories into the coherent and compelling language of stories that can be edited, polished, and admired. Throughout the workshop, you will apply lessons taught by Mr. Waxler to develop your own story.
Who should take the workshop?
This workshop will help any writer translate experience into the language of stories. The challenges of writing memoirs are different from most other subjects, and so, writers at every level of experience will take away fresh insights about working in the genre. In addition to helping memoir writers, the workshop will help fiction writers gain a deeper understanding of how Story works from inside the protagonist, as well as providing tools to mine your own life for material that can used in any writing.
The workshop will teach:
* How to find memories.
* How to place memories into the context of story.
* The importance of scenes, how to find them, and what to do with them.
* How to look for the story-drivers in your life, so you can find one or more story arcs.
* What keeps readers turning pages to the end, and how to find those elements in your life.
SCHEDULE
9-10:30: Introductions, goals. What is a memoir? Exercise 1: Turn memories into the building blocks of a story.
10:45-noon: Find the story in the cycle of: “desire, obstacles, release.” Exercise 2: Identify a storyline from your memories.
Noon-1: break for lunch plus informal, optional discussion.
1-2:45: Beginning, middle, and end: Develop a particular period or journey into a story. Exercise 3: Show when you overcame an obstacle - the building block of the middle.
3-4:30: How character arc builds and relieves dramatic tension. Exercise 4: What lesson does your protagonist learn, and how can this define a story.
4:30-5: Class Denouement: Wrap up, answer questions, and aim towards writing goals.
ABOUT THE INSTRUCTOR
Jerry Waxler M.S., is a workshop leader and writing coach, and has a Master's Degree in Counseling Psychology. He is the author of the blog, Memory Writers Network, which contains more than 200 essays, book reviews, stories, and writing prompts about reading and writing memoirs. Mr. Waxler is the author of “Learn to Write Your Memoirs in Four Weeks, a Step by Step Guide to Record the Stories of your Life” and “Four Elements for Writers: How to Get Beyond ‘Yes-But,’ Conquer Self-Doubt and Inertia, and Achieve Your Writing Goals.” Jerry is the Vice President of the Philadelphia Writers Conference, a former board member and Workshop Chairman for Greater Lehigh Valley Writers Group, and a member of the advisory board of the National Association of Memoir Writers www.namw.org.
Blog: More Than a 175 Essays for Memoir Writers and Readers
Home Page: JerryWaxler.com
To learn more about registering, please email christine@philadelphiastories.org. NOTE: We are only accepting 20 students for this workshop on a first-come, first-serve basis.
Post new comment