The Muse & The Marketplace 2020

Fiction writers spend a lot of time developing their protagonist, creating conflict for them, and moving them through a propulsive plot. But what if you're writing a memoir, and the protagonist is you? What craft techniques can memoirists learn from novelists?

In this class, we'll discuss how to apply the craft elements commonly associated with fiction-- including character development, narrative arc, structure, plot, and more-- to our memoirs-in-progress. Before the author Reyna Grande embarked on her memoir-writing journey, she first wrote two novels, and learned how the two genres can learn from one another. She'll share tricks from fiction that she used to write her memoirs, The Distance Between Us and A Dream Called Home, which will come in handy as you become the protagonist of your story.