Ref: SWE37465
Writing about a lifetime of rich experience in a way that captures the essence of the people and places involved can be challenging. This course will look at how to tell your life story in a way that will make a compelling read.
This course will consider what the truth is in memoir writing, and will use a range of techniques to help you write about your past, so that events can be understood in the context of the time. It will look at how to include social history in a way that serves, rather than dominates, the story. You will practise the skills needed to write about people, so that they appear real and unique, and you will learn how to describe places that you have visited or lived and how to focus your life story, so that it can be told succinctly.
Working in a supportive, encouraging environment, you will explore each of these areas through class discussions and written exercises. Regular feedback and guidance will be provided by the tutor. There will be plenty of time for independent writing in and around the inspirational setting of West Dean College and the surrounding gardens.
By the end of the course, you will have developed an understanding of how to structure and write your memoirs. You will have written and edited several pieces, and you will leave with increased writing skills and with the confidence to write more.
Available from shop:
Please wear appropriate clothing/aprons for the workshop or studio. This includes stout covered footwear, i.e. no open-toes or sandals, and safety boots, if specified.
Arrival day
Residential students can arrive from 4pm, non-residential students to arrive by 7.15pm for registration. Students arriving earlier are welcome to purchase dinner in the College Dining Room from 6pm.
Students meet their tutor in the Bar at 7.30pm prompt to go to studios.
First Teaching session: 7.30pm - 9pm (attendance is essential)
Daily timetable
Course teaching: 9.15am - 5pm
Morning session: 9.15am - 12.45pm including coffee/tea break
Lunch break: 12.45pm - 2pm*
Afternoon session: 2pm - 5pm including coffee/tea break
Teaching finishes: 5pm
Evening working: students may have access to workshops until 9pm, but only with permission from the tutor and provided any health and safety guidelines are observed.
Departure day
Course teaching: 9.15am - 3pm
Teaching finishes: 3pm
Residential students will need to check out of rooms by 10am. Please note, the tutor may make slight variations to the daily timetable as required.
*Lunch can be purchased on campus, view options
Ruth Brandt’s short stories and flash fiction have been widely published. She won the Kingston University MFA Creative Writing Prize, and has been nominated for the Pushcart Prize, Write Well Award and Best Small Fictions Award. Her short story collection No One has any Intention of Building a Wall will be published by Fly on the Wall Press in 2021.
Residential option available. Find out accommodation costs and how to book here.
If you’re looking to complete the first draft of a novel and learn about the publishing process. The two-year, part-time MA Creative Writing and Publishing is taught by professional authors and visiting industry professionals. Find out more
