OWC 204 C — Memoir II: Plotting Your Life
Quarter: Spring
Instructor(s): Mike Scalise
Date(s): Apr 1—Jun 3
Class Recording Available: Yes
Class Meeting Day: Wednesdays
Grade Restriction: Letter grade only
Class Meeting Time: 6:00—7:15 pm (PT)
Tuition: $1240
Refund Deadline: Apr 3
Unit(s): 2
Enrollment Limit: 15
Status: Registration opens Feb 23, 8:30 am (PT)
Quarter: Spring
Day: Wednesdays
Duration: 10 weeks
Time: 6:00—7:15 pm (PT)
Date(s): Apr 1—Jun 3
Unit(s): 2
Tuition: $1240
Refund Deadline: Apr 3
Instructor(s): Mike Scalise
Grade Restriction: Letter grade only
Enrollment Limit: 15
Recording Available: Yes
Status: Registration opens Feb 23, 8:30 am (PT)
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.
MIKE SCALISE
Author
Mike Scalise’s memoir, The Brand New Catastrophe, received the Christopher Doheny Award from the Center for Fiction and praise from The New York Times, BuzzFeed, and The Baltimore Sun. He’s written for The New York Times, Bon Appétit, The Paris Review Daily, The Georgia Review, and elsewhere. He received an MFA in creative writing from George Mason University and was the Philip Roth Writer in Residence at Bucknell University. Textbooks for this course:
(Required) Carmen Maria Machado, In the Dream House (ISBN 978-1644450383)