Jumpstart Your Memoir
A Self-Paced Course for First-Time Memoirists
What are you waiting for?
You’re frustrated. You’ve been wanting to write a memoir but you’re having trouble getting words on the page. There are always excuses. You don’t have enough time, know-how, courage or caffeine. Your chair’s uncomfortable. The dog needs a bath. You know the drill.
If you’ve got a story to tell but need some support getting started and understanding how to write a memoir, this course is for you.
About the Course
Jumpstart Your Memoir is a 21-lesson self-paced course that brings together top content from eight of my most popular writing classes—previously taught in person and online at the University of Denver, Arizona State University and Lighthouse Writers—into one easy-to-understand workbook.
Over the last 18 years, I’ve taught memoir writing to more than 2,700 adult students and coached more than 500 individuals. The 21 lessons pulled together in Jumpstart Your Memoir represent the most valuable—and popular—lessons I’ve ever taught.
After Completing This Course, You’ll Understand:
- What your story is really about
- The best structure to use for your particular story
- How to develop your own unique voice and style
- Why scene setting is essential for reader engagement
- What the reflective voice is and why it’s crucial to memoir
- How to write humor, master dialogue, and communicate emotion
- Why setting and context are important to stories
- How to deal with difficult emotions that might arise, including shame, guilt, fear and doubt
- How to write truthfully about other people in your life
- What makes a memoir stand apart in today’s crowded publishing market
- What a realistic writing routine looks like—for you
Best of all, you’ll have generated a stack of new pages and laid the foundation for a regular writing routine.
Why Buy This Course?
Saves time and money. To gain all the insight presented in this course, you’d have to take several different writing workshops. This not only requires more time (and can be a scheduling hassle) it also costs a lot more money.
Allows you to work at your own pace. With Jumpstart Your Memoir, you can move through the lessons at your own speed. You could do five lessons in one day, and then skip a day or two of writing.
Privacy. Many memoir writers are uncomfortable sharing early-draft personal stories with strangers in writing workshops. This course allow you to learn the craft before you start sharing work with others
How Much Is It?
If you were to individually purchase the courses combined here—or paid for one-on-one coaching—the cost would range from $800 to well over $4,800 dollars. I’m offering all this content for just $99.
Why? Because I’ve seen thousands of writers transform themselves through the relatively simple—though not always easy—act of personal storytelling. Memoir writing will give you a profoundly new perspective on your life. You’ll gain confidence, understanding, courage, compassion, and forgiveness for yourself and others. Memoir writing is not only a powerful act of self-validation, it is also one of the most healing things many of my clients have ever done.
What Students Have Said About “Jumpstart Your Memoir”
“Shari’s insights and suggestions are always right on target—she helps writers move forward more quickly and deeply.”
“Shari gives me strength and hope to keep writing my story.”
“Shari is a sensitive, supportive and intelligent personality with great background and knowledge of the subject.”
“Shari is funny, insightful, smart and knowledgeable—she’s one of the best teachers in my 50-plus years of learning!”
“Shari is one of the very best teachers with whom I’ve ever taken a class. She had great answers to every single question, she imparted a TON of information, and we did a ton of writing as well. Everyone seemed to be getting a LOT out of this workshop!”