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Start to Write: Memoir and Nonfiction

w/ Patti Miller

Do you have a true story to tell? Is it your story, or the story of someone else?

Start to Write is the writing series at the Faber Writing Academy designed to kick-start your writing life.

Tuesday 24 November, Wednesday 25 November and Thursday 26 November 2020

3 evenings, 6.30-8.30pm AEDT

Course fee: $ 195/$ 165.75 alumni


This is a past course.

Over three nights, you’ll get the hands-on teaching you need to start writing from acclaimed tutor and memoirist Patti Miller.

• Discover the tools you need to start writing.
• Overcome common problems shared by emerging writers.
• Understand the fundamentals of nonfiction.

NB: Patti Miller will be teaching her four-month intensive program Writing True Stories from February to June 2021. Register here to receive more information on this course.


Writers you'll be working with:

Patti Miller

Patti Miller is the author of ten books, including Australia’s best-selling life writing texts, Writing Your Life, The Memoir Book and Writing True Stories (A&U) as well as a novel Child (A&U) and The Last One Who Remembers (A&U) Whatever The Gods Do (Random House), the critically acclaimed The Mind of a Thief (UQP), long and…

Course outline

Tuesday

  • Finally sitting down to do it
  • Overcoming ‘one day I will do it’ syndrome
  • Getting ready for the journey
  • Gathering your materials – what you need to pack, what you need to leave behind
  • Facing the fear and doing it anyway
  • Readings, discussion and writing exercise

Wednesday

  • Genre – what kind of a book are your writing?
  • What is memoir and creative nonfiction exactly?
  • How is it different from other genres?
  • Great memoir and nonfiction books
  • What are the skills you will need?
  • What can be transferred from your own writing background as a journalist? academic? science writer? blog writer? Business writer? great email writer?
  • Readings, discussion and writing exercise

Thursday

  • Ways to begin
  • What engages your attention in a beginning?
  • What engages other readers?
  • Where do you want your reader to go?
  • How to point your reader in the right direction
  • Writing that opening page
  • Readings, discussion and writing exercise

Praise for this course

‘Patti provides a brilliant mix of knowledge, skill and deep listening as part of her teaching structure. Her humour and reality based communication style only compliment her professionalism and sense of authenticity as a person.’ (2019)

How to Book

This is a past course.