6-Week Course | Finding and Telling Your Personal Story: A Crash Course in Writing Memoir and Essays
March 27 @ 1:00 pm - May 1 @ 4:00 pm EDT
Genres: personal essay/book-length memoir/creative nonfiction
[Limited to 12 students]
LIVE ON ZOOM | Thursdays, 1-4 pm Eastern | Mar 27 – May 01, 2025
Write with purpose. Find your story’s core.
In this 6-week writing workshop, practice writing drafts and parts of a personal narrative, whether a personal essay, book-length memoir, or creative nonfiction. You’ll learn how focusing your story around a central question can create conflict and tension, how to balance emotional “heat” and the undercurrent/inner story, how to develop your story and narrative “engine,” how to understand the role of scene, narrative summary, and reflective voice, how to explore formal possibilities to structure and tell your story, how to consider chronology and point of view, how to examine “truth” in memoir, and how to practice revision strategies to improve your work.
In-class prompts will give you a chance to try out techniques and ideas. Short readings will be mined for craft and inspiration. You will have at least one short personal narrative workshopped in the course and receive feedback from your fellow writers and the instructor, along with an additional opportunity for feedback on revisions.
Class includes in-depth exercises, prompts, readings, feedback, office hours, and Q&A.
Over these six weeks, you will …
- EXPLORE structure for your personal narrative
- LEARN the fundamental building blocks of personal writing
- UNDERSTAND and DEVELOP the central heat and tension of your story
- DISCOVER how to focus the scope of your memoir, essay or creative nonfiction
This workshop is for writers who:
- want to find shape and structure for their personal stories
- are stuck on “what my personal story is about”
- need improvement in writing scene, narrative summary, and reflective voice
- are beginner or intermediate
Closed captioning is available. 
Think you might miss a class? No worries, replays will be available.
ABOUT YOUR INSTRUCTOR
ETHAN GILSDORF is a writer, teacher, performer, and the author of the Fantasy Freaks and Gaming Geeks. His work has appeared in the New York Times, Washington Post, Esquire, Wired, Salon, O the Oprah Magazine, Brevity, Electric Literature, Poetry, The Southern Review, among other publications, and named “Notable” by The Best American Essays. He teaches workshops in essay, creative nonfiction and memoir at GrubStreet in Boston, where he leads the Essay Incubator program, and at LitArts RI. He is also on the faculty of the Solstice MFA Program at Lasell University.
“His enthusiasm for the craft is contagious, his experience is impressive, and his teaching style is highly engaging.”
“One of, if not the best teacher I’ve ever had in my life. … I would probably rearrange my entire schedule so I could be in his class again.”
“Ethan Gilsdorf is the real deal: a great writer and also a great instructor, two skill sets that sometimes do not overlap. He’s smart and organized, and has extraordinary classroom management skills.”
“I got more out of your 6 week class than I did out of some of my semester long MFA classes.”
“Nurturing and challenging … You are masterful at creating an atmosphere for both. I loved the class, and I can’t wait for the next one!”
THE FINE PRINT
We understand that life can get in the way of your plans. We want you to be able to get the most out of your course, and our refund policy is designed to balance your need for flexibility with our deadlines and obligations to our teachers.
Before the first class, you may request a refund (less a $25 processing fee).
After class begins, you may request a refund for the remaining value of the course (less a $25 processing fee).
No refunds will be available after the third class.
Questions? Please email Info@craft-talks.com