Course Agenda

In this workshop participants will discuss the similarities and differences, and the conventions and limitations of biography, autobiography and memoir.

Through practical exercises participants will learn how to impose order on experience through characterization, plot, point of view and other elements of the writing craft.

Participants will learn how to recollect and imagine the stuff of our everyday lives into scenes and stories that leave the reader wanting to know more.

Suitable for: Writers wishing to explore the genre of Life Writing.

Bring along: a short but sustained piece of life writing of approx. 500 words, which you wish to develop further.

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It’s an old saying that fact is stranger than fiction.  In truth, many of the coincidences and revelations in real life often stretch our imaginations to the limit.  Despite this, the genres of biography, autobiography and memoir involve people who are not made-up characters, and care and judgement is needed when deciding what to include in your writing.

The key word is “story”, for while not being a fiction narrative, the writing must still satisfy the human need for a story with shape.  Drusilla Modjeska in Timepieces writes: ‘Narrative makes structural demands that life doesn’t make – or give – and the intellectual puzzle of marrying these…is one of writing’s labours.’  We will also explore how best to make our reader feel as well as see the events of everyday life.

To book or for further information visit www.ballaratwriters.com