I have several weekend classes coming up at Grub Street, Boston’s independent creative writing center.
To register for any of these classes, or to learn more, please click here. If one-on-one manuscript consulting (offered by me through Grub Street) would better suit your needs, please email me at alexandriaml@gmail.com. I have worked with memoirists, essayists, novelists, short story writers, and those still figuring out the shape of their projects, and I would be happy to work with you to figure out an individualized plan!
Structure as Solution: Form and the Personal EssaySaturday, December 3rd, 10:00am-5:00pm at Grub Street headquarters.
The personal essay comes in many different forms, and each of these forms offers its own advantages to the writer. In fact, the choice of structure can help save the essayist, pushing her ideas to greater depth and complexity. Changing the structure of an essay can even help disguise its weaknesses and enhance its strengths. But how do you know what structures are out there, and which would help your essay? Appropriate for both the experienced and aspiring essayist alike, the seminar will cover the wide array of structures established essayists like Didion, Lopate, and Ballantine use to, in the words of Aldous Huxley, “look at the world through the keyhole of anecdote and description." A reading packet will be distributed, containing both how-to craft articles and examples of the form both classic and modern. We’ll use this packet to practice identifying what structures—and “keyholes”—are at work in different essays. Then comes the fun part: using the essay ideas you bring in, we’ll practice brainstorming how an essay idea might look if realized through different structures. With this exercise, one vague idea can turn into the inspiration for several tightly crafted kernels of essays just waiting to be realized.
Personal Essay Revision BootcampSaturday-Sunday, February 2-3rd, 10:00am-5:00pm at Grub Street headquarters.
Every writer knows that the true challenge isn’t in writing what Anne Lamott calls “shitty first drafts,” but rather taking those first drafts through the grueling and crucial revision process. But how do you start? And once you start, how do you make sure you take your work as far as it can go? This weekend workshop will focus on how to revise personal writing, be it a personal essay or a memoir chapter. We’ll use craft essays and revision exercises to diagnose problems in the draft. We’ll discuss strategies for seeing the work on both the macro and micro levels, and use revision roadmaps that have helped established writers. Come to the first class prepared with two hard copies of a piece of twenty pages or less, a notebook, a pen, a pair of scissors, and highlighters in two different colors. We’ll also have the opportunity to workshop short sections, brainstorming ways to improve troublesome scenes. Students will come out of the class with new ideas on how to take their work to the next level—and new confidence for tackling future revisions!
Developing the 'I': Perspective & Voice in MemoirSaturday, February 25th, 10:30am-5:30pm at Grub Street headquarters.
Yes, that’s right, memoir! Perspective is often discussed as an important aspect of fiction, but the truth is it’s just as important in first-person memoir. Memoir is an intimate, confessional form—but that doesn’t mean it’s enough just to tell what happened. The writer must balance the intimate tone of memoir with the distance required to truly paint characters and scenes for the reader. The writer must also do the hard task of developing herself as a character. How do you develop the narrator when the narrator is you? We’ll look at craft essays and excerpts from published memoirs to understand both the issues at hand and how writers have successfully navigated the unique demands of this genre. We’ll also use exercises to improve the use of perspective and voice in our own work. Please bring five pages of personal writing to class. One copy is fine; this is for you to work from, and will not be shared unless you choose to read aloud.
Developing Family Members as CharactersSunday, February 26th, 10:00am-5:00pm at Grub Street headquarters.
One of the most difficult tasks of the memoirist is learning to see family members as fully developed characters. As writers, we must set aside self-interest to understand our characters' motivations and allow them to live on the page. Only then will our characters have as much emotional reality for our readers as they do for us as writers. This is as true when our characters are our family members as it is for fictional characters-- only sometimes more difficult (as writers are human, too)! Fortunately, writing exercises can help. In this class, we'll use writing exercises to develop the characters that just happen to be our family members. We'll also read and discuss exceptional examples of family member characterization in published memoirs, and use these examples as models for our own writing. Come prepared with family stories and ready to write! Please note that while this class is intended primarily for the family memoirist, it is also appropriate for the writer of autobiographical fiction, and all exercises will be adaptable for both.
Structure as Solution: Form and the Personal EssaySaturday, March 24th, 10:00am-5:00pm at Grub Street headquarters.
The personal essay comes in many different forms, and each of these forms offers its own advantages to the writer. In fact, the choice of structure can help save the essayist, pushing her ideas to greater depth and complexity. Changing the structure of an essay can even help disguise its weaknesses and enhance its strengths. But how do you know what structures are out there, and which would help your essay? Appropriate for both the experienced and aspiring essayist alike, the seminar will cover the wide array of structures established essayists like Didion, Lopate, and Ballantine use to, in the words of Aldous Huxley, “look at the world through the keyhole of anecdote and description." A reading packet will be distributed, containing both how-to craft articles and examples of the form both classic and modern. We’ll use this packet to practice identifying what structures—and “keyholes”—are at work in different essays. Then comes the fun part: using the essay ideas you bring in, we’ll practice brainstorming how an essay idea might look if realized through different structures. With this exercise, one vague idea can turn into the inspiration for several tightly crafted kernels of essays just waiting to be realized.