Class Title: "The Craft of Memoir Writing: Memoir Devices and Story Structures" Instructors: Matilda Butler and Kendra Bonnett Class Term: enroll in this class Class Description Struggling to organize your memoir? Bored with a sequential story? Puzzled about how to use the vignettes and chapters you've written in various classes and on your own? Bring your problems to this class and we'll discuss story structure, your theme and message, and ways to pull all your work together to create a unique framework that helps reveal who you are... Class Outline Thursday, May 14, 5 PM West Coast and 8 PM East Coast: Conference call #1: Discussion and real-time exercise on memoir writing organizational devices. There will be time for each student to raise her questions about story structure and organization to ensure these will be addressed in the course. Friday, May 15: Video lesson available on website. This lesson focuses on the arc of the storyline from the beginning to the end of the memoir. Each student writes a brief summary of how her story will unfold, incorporating the elements of plot. Tuesday, May 19: Written assignment due. All assignments will be posted on class website. Thursday, May 21: Conference call #2: Each student describes how she envisions the arc, the plot of her memoir. Other students and instructors provide feedback. Friday, May 22: Video lesson available on website. Lesson focuses on story structure and character development (in memoir, of course, the author is the main character) within chapters or vignettes. The assignment is to take one previously written vignette or chapter and map the elements of chronology, emotional development, goal, action, conflict, theme connection, etc. Tuesday, May 26: Written assignment due. All assignments will be posted on class website. Thursday, May 28: Conference call #3: Each student discusses how organizational devices, plot arc, and story structure/character development help clarify her work on the particular vignette or chapter. Other students and instructors provide feedback. Student Skills, Equipment required We are pleased to have students at all writing levels as long as they have already written some vignettes or chapters for a memoir and are struggling with how to organize them. It is important to be open to learning and to be respectful of the writing of others. All class participants need to be able to create an email and attach the weekly assignments as .doc files. Everyone must have an Internet connection with adequate speed/bandwidth to view the weekly instructional video... Tuition/Fees for this course SCN members: $0. Non-SCN members: $. Instructor Bios Matilda Butler teaches women's memoir writing classes with the goal of helping women tell their life stories whether for personal understanding, family and friends, business marketing, or commercial publication. Her collective memoir, Rosie's Daughters: The "First Woman To" Generation Tells Its Story, has just been awarded the 2008 IPPY National Book Award, women's issues category. Butler taught and conducted research at Stanford University, created the nationwide Women's Educational Equity Communication Network, and co-founded Knowledge Access International, a software company specializing in CD-ROM information products. She has published more than 50 articles about women, contributed chapters to published books about women in education and work, co-authored the award-winning book Women and the Mass Media and co-edited the book Knowledge Utilization Systems in Education. Kendra Bonnett uses her extensive marketing experience, writing talent and Internet know-how to help women, whether authors or entrepreneurs (there really isn't much difference), utilize 21st century technology to increase book sales and expand their businesses. She is the co-author of Rosie's Daughters: The "First Woman To" Generation Tells Its Story, has written more than 200 magazine articles, authored four books (The Everyone Can Build a Robot Book; ACT IT: Using Your Computer in School; The Creative Printmaster; an IBM Guide to Doing Business on the Internet), and ghostwritten five books for prominent business executives. As a business executive, Bonnett has 20 years experience in direct marketing, public relations, and marketing communications for both international corporations and smaller, entrepreneurial firms. She co-founded Digit, one of the first computer magazines for children, and Profit: Information Technology for Entrepreneurs and Beyond Computing, a joint magazine publishing venture between IBM and The New York Times. Praise for Matilda's and Kendra's Classes Kendra and Matilda made this class fun, as well as stimulating. I felt stretched as I learned more about my own writing techniques. I had never written dialogue until I took this class. Now I find that my writing of dialogue flows easier than descriptive writing with no dialogue. Great class; well organized. Matilda and Kendra make a great team to work with. —Judy W., Spring Branch TX