Workshop Requirements for Accepted Writers

Once accepted, you will be asked to submit an excerpt of your memoir for the group to read in advance.

Please prepare:

–        10 double-spaced pages in standard format (12-point font, one-inch margins) — or up to 3,000 words — from anywhere in your manuscript. Choose the pages that feel most alive to you, or the pages that trouble you most. Whatever feels right to you.

–        A brief but clear synopsis or description of your project (no more than 1000 words) — that addresses where the memoir begins and ends (the main narrative time frame), what exactly happens in the memoir (the main events), and what you think it is really about. I can help you with this once you are accepted, so, do not let it intimidate you. Just do your best to answer the above questions.

–        A Scene List – this is a list of key scenes in your memoir, in the order in which those scenes appear, with a 2-3 sentence description of what happens in each scene

–        A clear Through Line statement of aboutness—this is your best current attempt at your through line. This will be your first piece of homework, and it will be deliberately imperfect. I will provide at least two frameworks for you to play with in creating this statement, and we will use these statements on Thursday evening as our opening material.