Writing it True: Crafting Memoir with Depth and Discovery with Joanne Nelson

Discover how to transform lived experience into powerful, resonant nonfiction. This immersive five-day intensive invites you to explore the heart and craft of memoir. Through a blend of instruction, generative writing, and guided revision, you’ll learn to shape compelling true stories. We’ll examine core elements of craft and use them in unique ways to build strong narratives. You’ll experiment with braided, segmented, and hermit-crab forms, discovering how structure uncovers new layers of meaning. We’ll study what makes an ending feel earned and practice strategies that help your drafts find their true shape. Daily prompts, developmental tools, and supportive conversation will deepen your work and strengthen your voice. Ideal for all experience levels, this intensive will leave you with pages of new work, fresh insights on previous drafts, and a renewed connection to your writing life.

Class size: minimum 5; maximum 12.

Member discount: Members of Write On receive a 10% discount on all classes and workshops. To become a member, please click here. To receive the discount, members must log in to the website using their unique password and enter member10 in the promotion code box. The code is case sensitive.

Teaching artist: Joanne Nelson is the author of My Neglected Gods and of This Is How We Leave, both from Vine Leaves Press. Her ongoing writing practice focuses on creative nonfiction, essays, commentaries on craft, reviews, and the occasional poem. In addition, Joanne is certified by the McLean Meditation Institute as a meditation and mindfulness teacher. The classes, workshops, and retreats she leads have a solid foundation in the skills and experiences she brings from these eclectic pursuits. More than thirty years of experience as a psychotherapist allows Joanne to combine clinical expertise with her love of teaching to create programs that are research based, practical, and enjoyable. Joanne is a contributor to Lake Effect on 89.7 FM, her local NPR affiliate. Her writing appears in anthologies and literary journals such as Brevity, Consequence, and Redivider. She holds an MFA from the Bennington Writing Seminars and an MSSW from the University of Wisconsin-Madison.