OWC 204 B — Memoir II: Plotting Your Life
Quarter: Spring
Instructor(s): John W. Evans
Date(s): Mar 30—Jun 1
Class Recording Available: Yes
Class Meeting Day: Mondays
Grade Restriction: Letter grade only
Class Meeting Time: 12:00—1:15 pm (PT)
Please Note: Class will meet on Mondays, March 30 - June 1, 12:00 - 1:15 pm (PT). Note: No class Monday, May 25. That week class will meet on Friday, May 29 instead.
Tuition: $1240
Refund Deadline: Apr 1
Unit(s): 2
Enrollment Limit: 15
Status: Registration opens Feb 23, 8:30 am (PT)
Quarter: Spring
Day: Mondays
Duration: 10 weeks
Time: 12:00—1:15 pm (PT)
Date(s): Mar 30—Jun 1
Unit(s): 2
Tuition: $1240
Refund Deadline: Apr 1
Instructor(s): John W. Evans
Grade Restriction: Letter grade only
Enrollment Limit: 15
Recording Available: Yes
Status: Registration opens Feb 23, 8:30 am (PT)
Please Note: Class will meet on Mondays, March 30 - June 1, 12:00 - 1:15 pm (PT). Note: No class Monday, May 25. That week class will meet on Friday, May 29 instead.
This course is not open to the public, but rather by admission only. For more information on the Online Writing Certificate Program and its application process, please click here.
Plotting a memoir can be challenging, since real-life experiences often lack a tidy structure. In this course, our aim is to balance the authenticity of lived experience with the art of storytelling, preserving truth while learning techniques to captivate readers, such as simplification and selection, enabling us to know what material to pick from the vast store of lived experience. We will tackle the struggle of maintaining momentum in the middle of the book, with practical strategies to combat writer's block and ensure sustained reader engagement. Through outlining and project mapping, students will establish a plot framework that will still allow room for creative exploration.
Plotting a memoir can be challenging, since real-life experiences often lack a tidy structure. In this course, our aim is to balance the authenticity of lived experience with the art of storytelling, preserving truth while learning techniques to captivate readers, such as simplification and selection, enabling us to know what material to pick from the vast store of lived experience. We will tackle the struggle of maintaining momentum in the middle of the book, with practical strategies to combat writer's block and ensure sustained reader engagement. Through outlining and project mapping, students will establish a plot framework that will still allow room for creative exploration.
JOHN W. EVANS
Phyllis Draper Lecturer of Creative Nonfiction, Department of English, Stanford
John W. Evans is the author of four books. His latest, The Fight Journal, received the Rattle Prize. Should I Still Wish: A Memoir was selected for the "American Lives" series. Young Widower: A Memoir received the River Teeth Literary Nonfiction Prize and a Foreword INDIES award. His work has appeared in Slate, The Missouri Review, Boston Review, Zyzzyva, Poets & Writers, and The Best American Essays. He was a Jones Lecturer and Stegner Fellow at Stanford. Textbooks for this course:
(Required) Patti Smith, Just Kids (ISBN 978-0060936228)
(Required) Sidonie Smith and Julia Watson, Reading Autobiography Now: An Updated Guide for Interpreting Life Narratives (ISBN 978-1517916886)
(Required) Carmen Maria Machado, In the Dream House (ISBN 978-1644450383)
(Required) Sidonie Smith and Julia Watson, Reading Autobiography Now: An Updated Guide for Interpreting Life Narratives (ISBN 978-1517916886)
(Required) Carmen Maria Machado, In the Dream House (ISBN 978-1644450383)