The Write Your First Memoir Draft program has been designed to bring you all the best of an academic external degree program. Many of us have looked into these long distance writing programs or at least have seen them advertised in writers’ magazines like Poets & Writers and the Writer’s Digest and wished we could […]

The Write Your First Memoir Draft program has been designed to bring you all the best of an academic external degree program. Many of us have looked into these long distance writing programs or at least have seen them advertised in writers’ magazines like Poets & Writers and the Writer’s Digest and wished we could afford the time and/or the money to attend.

An external, long distance writing program provides a way for an aspiring memoir writer who is not a young person to incorporate significant serious extra learning into a life that is already full. Such is the goal of the Write Your First Memoir Draft program.

How Write Your First Memoir Draft  compares

1. Short residency

Most external long distance learning programs require a short residency on campus. For one day to one week to 10 days to weeks, writers gather on a campus and share and develop their manuscripts in community.

In the Write Your First Memoir Draft, we do not have a physical gathering of writers. We do, however, have a monthly call that provides a low residency experience. Every month for 60 minutes, you and other writers gather over a bridge line. At some of these meetings, you get to talk about your manuscript, and at other times, you talk about the writing process and how you think of yourself as a writer. Thanks to the exchange, it is likely you may have a glimpse of possibilities that had eluded you.

In addition, you get to hang out with other writers in the special members-only  forum. A forum has an advantage over a Facebook group in that a writer can post under a title that remains visible. In two days, two weeks, two months or two years, the post can still be accessed and a writer can participate in the conversation. Have you tried following a Facebook comment after 10 minutes. Good luck.

2. Visiting writers

In a degree long distance writing program, visiting writers often lead master classes or present programs in the evenings. Visiting writers expose student writers to ideas beyond those provided by the faculty.

The Write Your First Memoir Draft  offers you a number of visiting writers who will be available to you in the various modules. These have been carefully selected and carefully interviewed to present you with some significant memoir writing perspective. In the program, we call this feature the Master Writer series. It is our version of a visiting writers program.

You get to listen to these visiting writers on MP3s which are delivered to you as part of a generous stack of learning materials, and you get to keep these MP3s. You can listen to them as many times as you want to or need to—the day you download or in a year. The MP3s are yours so you can continue to listen any time.

3. Reading lists

In a long-distance writing program, you receive a reading list to expand our knowledge of the topic of the class. Usually, you have to buy these books.

Every month, as a member of the Write Your First Memoir Draft, you will receive e-books from The Memoir Network library of publications. They come with your tuition without extra charge.

You will also have access to numerous collated links to our blog posts for you to read and review. There will be no dearth of reading material. You’ll feel like you’re back in college.

In addition, writers will be encouraged to share short reviews of books they have read. In this way, you will have access to many more books than you might on your own.

4. In our long distance learning program, you have a choice of special seminars

In a degree, long distance writing program you would also have access to a series of seminars for you to choose from to expand your awareness of writing.

In the Write Your First Memoir Draft, you will receive a catalog of available MP3s from our archives. Many are one-hour long. Experience your sense of memoir possibilities expand and envelop your aspirations for your book.

5. Community in the moment and later

In long distance writing programs, the community that you form with your fellow writers will support you in the process of composing your memoir draft.

In the Write Your First Memoir Draft, this community will not only contribute to the process of writing but it will also keep you focused on the outcome—producing a book of memoirs. The writing can be a pleasurable process in itself. It can be a an experience that you enjoy very much. But, you must not get lost in the process. Ultimately, you are writing to produce a book.

This does not mean that the enjoyable process needs to come to an end. No, you can move on to a second memoir and enjoy the process all over again!

6. Getting to ask your questions

In a long distance writing program you get to have extra time with your teachers to ask them your questions about technique and craft and air your issues around the writing life.

In the Mastermind Group, the monthly telephone meeting with your teacher and your classmates,  you get to do just that. This hour-long session is bound to be a favorite. They are recorded and will be available for you to listen to again any time you want.

A precious gift

Your membership in Write Your First Memoir Draft can be a gift that you make to yourself to produce the book that you have been dreaming of writing for such a long time.

My commitment to you in this long distance learning program

The Write Your First Memoir Draft is the best-designed course that I have created—ever. If you take your writing seriously and take yourself seriously as an emerging writer—or writer who is attempting a new genre—at the end of the program, you will have produced a significant portion of your first memoir draft—and possibly the entire draft.

For the months in which you participate in the Write Your First Memoir Draft Program  you get to immerse yourself in the writing culture.

Click here to register for the Write Your First Memoir Draft.