Telling Your Story, an online course in memoir-writing, is designed to help you recognize what is uniquely interesting about your own life story and identify the book that is yours alone to write. Each week you'll complete a short writing exercise, post it to the group forum, and receive feedback from your fellow class participants as well as from myself. The final assignment will be to write a brief synopsis of your intended memoir, suitable for submission to prospective publishers.

How it works:
The course is hosted on a private, password-protected blog. It's open 24/7, so you can sign on at your own convenience. Each week, I'll post articles, assigments and topics for group discussion, and answer whatever questions you care to ask.

• Why the beginning is usually the wrong place to begin
• Coping with the privacy concerns of real people who are a part of your story
• Pros & cons of the autobiographical novel
• Finding the sub-genre that works best for your story
• How to handle painful memories--in your head & on the page
• What to do when you lose confidence or get stuck
• How to finish--and publish--your book within a year.

Space is limited, so sign up soon.

About the instructor

Dates: April 7-May 18, 2008
Cost: $250.

How to enroll:
When you click the "Buy Now" button, you will be conveyed to the Pay Pal site, where you can pay using a debit or credit card. (You don't need to have a Pay Pal account.) After completing the transaction, you'll be returned to this site, where you will receive further information about how to log in to the course forum.

Many people who don't especially like to write nevertheless dream of publishing their personal story. Legacy Books are an affordable way to achieve that dream. All you have to do is talk. After a series of in-depth interviews with you, I do the writing.

Legacy Books differ slightly from ghostwriting services I normally offer to non-fiction writers. Because these memoirs are intended to be self-published, they are shorter than the average length demanded by most commercial publishers. (That's what makes them more affordable.) The flat fee includes page and cover layout by a design professional, and set-up with an on-demand printer. I handle all the logistics. Your book can be published in hard cover, paperback, or both. Because it never goes out of print, you may order additional copies whenever you want them. I can also arrange to have it sold on Amazon.

Helping others to write their memoirs is my favorite kind of literary collaboration. I love hearing my clients' stories. Love challenging them delve deeper into the meaning of their experiences. Love helping them tell their tales skillfully, so that they become the hero or heroine of a book that reads like a novel.

Memoirs present some unique challenges, even for professional writers. (The last two clients I helped were already famous authors who faltered when it came to telling their own stories.) It's hard to judge a work objectively when the subject is oneself. Writing skills sometimes go on the blink when a particular episode in the story stirs up a lot of unresolved emotion. Another issue that stumps nearly every memoir writer is how to write truthfully about important people in their lives without hurting their feelings or violating their privacy.

As a coach, I can serve as a sounding board and offer advice on how to cope with these an other issues. If you're an inexperienced writer, I can also help to organize the project and stay on track with it, provide ongoing feedback as the work progresses, and generally cheer you on. I can also help with the logistics of getting the finished book published.

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