From Journal to Memoir: How to Turn Your Side Scrawls Into Literary Gold
Cost: $295 $250 Sign up by December 31 and get 15% off when you use the promo code EARLY at checkout.
Class Size Limit: 15
Many people use journals as a resource to clear their mental clutter, to work through daily challenges, or simply to maintain an accounting of their lives. Journaling also increases cognitive processing and improves memory. It’s an art unto itself. But it can also be a goldmine for transforming your daily musings into real, concrete pieces of writing. Many of us know we have a memoir or a series of essays buried in our journals. But where to begin? In this four-part workshop, writers will explore methods and concepts to help shift their journals and notebooks into incredible writing tools. In each 90-minute session we’ll weave engaging lectures with in-class activities that will spark your creativity and help get your journal writing organized.
In session one we’ll cover creating an effective and efficient journaling habit and discuss several different ways you might begin to organize your journals moving forward.
In session two we’ll cover how to pull ideas from your past journals, including annotating and tabulating for easy access to recorded events, thoughts, feelings, and ideas that can be resourced into your projects.
In session three we’ll create methods for notating journals as you go, including the use of multiple journals for a variety of projects and processes.
In session four we’ll cover the use of journaling for deep processing, intimate writing, and discovering your voice.
This is the right class for you if…
You’ve kept a journal that you know has the makings of a story or book, and you want to figure out how to incorporate these musings into your writing.
You want to start a journaling practice, but feel it will be one more thing to “keep track” of.
You’ve kept a lifetime of journals which have now become furniture and you want to find a deeper purpose for keeping them.
After this class you’ll have…
Learned several nuanced approaches to organizing, cataloging, and easily locating journal entries, enabling you to spend more time in generative work and revision instead of searching for lost/forgotten writings.
This four-week workshop takes place on Saturdays from 1pm to 2:30pm ET. Class starts on March 1 and ends on March 22. All Narratively Academy classes are conducted online and accessible to students anywhere in the world.
To make the most of the in-class activities, please bring your journal to each session, along with some suggested supplies: 3x5 cards, markers and highlighters, paperclips, your favorite pen, ruler, duct or washi tape (to create tabs), and scissors.
Instructor Bio: Memoirist, essayist, and poet Rebecca Evans’ Safe Handling, a collection-length poem, weaves family and heartbreak while navigating our challenging medical industry. Her memoir in verse, Tangled by Blood, bridges motherhood and betrayal, untangling wounds and restoring what it means to be a mother. Evans writes the difficult, the guidebooks for survivors. Her poems and essays have appeared in Narratively, The Rumpus, Brevity, Hypertext Magazine, War, Literature & the Arts, The Limberlost Review, and more. She's earned two MFAs, one in creative nonfiction, the other in poetry, from the University of Nevada, Reno at Lake Tahoe. She’s co-edited an anthology of poems, When There Are Nine, a tribute to the life and achievements of Ruth Bader Ginsburg (Moon Tide Press, 2022), She teaches high school teens in the juvenile justice system through journaling and art projects and co-hosts Radio Boise’s “Writer to Writer” show. Rebecca is disabled, a military veteran, and shares space with four Newfoundlands and her sons. She does her best writing in a hidden alcove beneath her stairway.
“Rebecca Evans is magic. Her workshops are a refreshing mix of writing, self-discovery, and self-care. They have strengthened my writing and reminded me of or introduced me to techniques I haven't used before. I would recommend her workshops to anyone looking to experience a wonderful creative writing class with a touch of the therapeutic.” —Irene Benvenuti, librarian and writer
Registration Details: Seats in this class are limited and available on a first-come, first-serve basis. All purchases are final and nonrefundable. After signing up, you’ll receive an email receipt confirming your purchase. Prior to the start of your class you’ll receive an invitation to access the virtual classroom and view all class materials.
Questions? Email us at academy@narratively.com.
More: Check out all of our Narratively Academy online writing classes here.