Writers' CLC · May 2026
Introduction to Memoir Writing
Bearing Witness to Memory
A three-week course on the memoir form. Collecting your memories, shaping them on the page, and discovering what your writing can do for you and for others. Led by Nancy Parsons.
Memoir is a Story from a Life
An autobiography is the story of a life. A memoir is a story from a life. That distinction changes everything about how you approach the page.
This three-week course is a broad overview of the memoir form. Nancy Parsons has written her own memoirs, ghostwritten memoirs for others, and spent years working with writers who are discovering what their memories mean on the page. She brings that experience to every session.
You will explore different approaches to memoir, learn techniques for collecting and shaping your memories, and develop the craft of turning lived experience into writing that resonates. By the end of the course, you will have completed several pages of your own memoir.
Course Details
What You Will Learn
Week 1
Getting Acquainted with Memoir
What memoir is, what it is not, and why the distinction matters. Nancy walks through examples of published memoir to show how different writers approach the form in different ways. No two memoirs look alike, and understanding that range is where this course begins.
Week 2
Data Mining Memory
Collecting the memories you know you have and surfacing the ones you have forgotten. Techniques for digging into your own experience and bringing material to the page that you did not know was there. This is where the raw material of your memoir takes shape.
Week 3
The Craft of Memoir Writing
Shape, titles, openings, closings, and how to put strength into your writing. The practical craft of turning collected memories into a piece of memoir that holds together on the page. You will leave with several completed pages and the tools to keep going.
Your Own Pages, and the Tools to Write More
By the final session, you will have completed several pages of your own memoir, explored multiple approaches to the form, and developed techniques for collecting and shaping your memories on the page. Whether you are writing for publication, for your family, or for yourself, you will leave with a foundation to build on.
Nancy Parsons
Nancy Parsons is a published author and independent writer with a particular focus on memoir. After a long career in advertising and corporate communications as a creative director, writer, and designer, she launched a second career dedicated to her own writing and to helping others tell their stories.
Her published books include Bald As A Bean: The Experience of Sudden Hair Loss, Abigail's Unicorn, and the co-authored MORE From The Better Mousetrap. She has also ghostwritten memoirs for other writers.
Nancy brings a unique perspective and understands that every writer's relationship to their own story is different. This course draws directly from that range of experience.
Your Story Is Already There.
Three weeks. Eight writers. A course designed to help you find the memories that matter and put them on the page.
Enroll Now – $295Questions? Contact us at info@writersclc.com or call (781) 663-2800