Write Your Memoir in Six Months

For thirteen years, Brooke Warner and Linda Joy Myers have been co-teaching memoir classes together. Memoir Nation is proud to be in collaboration with The National Association of Memoir Writers, and our two organizations will be co-leading classes, and intertwined in various ways due to Brooke and Linda Joy’s strong bond and long-standing partnership in the memoir space.

Whenever we offer a collaborative class, you’ll see both our logos on the site, and you may be pointed to a different one of our class websites. Write Your Memoir in Six Months has a strong reputation for supporting memoirists at various stages of their memoir-writing journey.

We are currently enrolling for the July-December 2025 course, and we invite you to check out all the details at WriteYourMemoirInSixMonths.com.

We’re enrolling for our July-Dec 2025 class. To register, visit our site, or email Brooke.

Here’s what you’ll learn in these 13 supportive and fun classes. All classes are 1 hour and 15 minutes. The dates below are for our July-December 2025 course (with an orientation in June).

ORIENTATION (Wednesday, June 25, 2025, 4pm PT/7pm ET)

  • Introduction to your mentors

  • What a memoir is and the challenges of memoir writing

  • Accountability and expectations

  • Goal-setting and information on how to make this course work

  • How to take advantage of partnering with fellow students

  • Confidentiality agreement

Class 1. Structure, Aboutness, and Turning Points (July 9 at 4pm PT/7pm ET)

  • Students introduce themselves and share what they’re writing about

  • Turning points and timelines

  • The emotional terrain of writing your personal story

  • Introducing the inner and outer critic

  • Types of structures—linear, braided, framed, and more

  • Types of memoir—coming-of-age, spiritual journey, identity and belonging, and many more

Course 2. The Joy of Mapping (July 23 at 4pm PT/7pm ET)

  • Turning points and scaffolding

  • Scenes—how to anchor your memoir in story

  • Time, structure, and how story is created

  • Permission to write a first draft, weaving in craft elements

  • Content buckets—what are they and how do they work?

Class 3. Write Your Memoir Like a Movie—Scene by Scene (August 6 at 4pm PT/7pm ET)

  • What makes a scene

  • How to recognize when you’re telling vs. showing

  • Types of narration

  • Including context and grounding the reader in your story

  • Past vs. now reflection

  • Scene breaks/line breaks

Class 4. Character and Dialogue (August 20 at 4pm PT/7pm ET)

  • Characters—composites vs. real people

  • Balance of narrative versus dialogue

  • Body language and characterization

  • Varying up “she said” and “he said”

  • Correct formatting of your manuscript

  • Tools for drawing motivation from inspiration

Class 5. The Journey of Writing Memoir (September 3 at 4pm PT/7pm ET)

  • The 3 stages of writing

  • When to research and when not to

  • How to be more prolific

  • Making time for your creative process

  • Tips for dealing with lapses in memory

  • Learning how to keep on track by using “TK”

  • Dealing with crises of confidence, writer’s block, resistance, and more

  • How to start or build your platform

Class 6. Reflection & Writing Outside the Memoir Box (September 17 at 4pm PT/7pm ET)

  • Theme—big picture, through-threads, and containment

  • Writing the family memoir

  • Whose memory is it?

  • Point of view in memoir—when can you take creative license?

  • Jumping heads—keeping track of point of view like a novel

  • Metaphor, simile, and analogy to build a fictive dream

Class 7. The Psychology of Memoir Writing (October 1 at 4pm PT/7pm ET)

  • Dealing with your inner and outer critics

  • Doubts about memory and truth

  • What to do about memories and truths that are emotionally jarring

  • Secrets, lies, and shame

  • Affirmations—the antidote to the inner critic

Class 8. Voice and Narration (October 15 at 4pm PT/7pm ET)

  • Who is the narrator?

  • The voice—what is it and how to find yours.

  • Breaking through silence—the labyrinth of truth, memory, and trauma.

  • Working through the kinks—what gets in the way.

  • Revisiting your scenes—how they get you through the labyrinth.

Class 9. Recapping Craft (October 29 at 4pm PT/7pm ET)

  • Scenes, dialogue & transition

  • Theme & through-threads

  • Common conflicts in memoir

  • Flashback and memory

  • Direct and indirect dialogue

  • Takeaway & reflection

Class 10. The Long-Range Vision of Your Book (November 12 at 4pm PT/7pm ET)

  • You’re in the thick of it—what do you do now?

  • Problem-solving to the finish line.

  • Revision

  • Where are you stuck? What do you do when it’s not working?

  • Your finished product.

Class 11. Becoming a Author from the Inside Out (Monday, November 24 at 4pm PT/7pm ET)

  • The author mindset

  • The writer’s life, and living as an author

  • The spiritual tending of your story

  • Sharing your work—rules of engagement

  • Why you need comparative title research early in the game

  • Building and maintaining an author platform

  • Social media, Substack, and other public-facing writing

Class 12. All the Way to the Finish Line (December 10 at 4pm PT/7pm ET)

  • Getting published—is it on your horizon?

  • How far to your finish line?

  • Closing sharing