In writing personal narratives, how do we approach subjects about which we have mixed feelings—which is to say, how do we write about the majority of our past? How, especially, do we write about life’s sudden ruptures in a unifying and unique way, in a way that gestures toward the universal in addition to the individual? In a sense, this question applies to all personal writing, since it involves dramatizing a self that is often still shifting. But it can feel especially daunting to tackle material that haunts or even just irks us, and to create a story that readers actually want to immerse themselves in. Where do we begin? How do we gain purchase in our own story? In this generative workshop we’ll read essays and excerpts from memoirs that attempt to get at truths using the techniques of storytelling, humor, tone, and fiction-like pacing. We’ll consider excerpts from works by great authors of the past fifty years, including Zadie Smith, Hilary Mantel, Joan Didion and David Rakoff.
