The thrills and chills of memoir writing

Die lekkertes en lokvalle van memoires

Maybe you simply want to write down your own story for your children or grandchildren? Or you survived a traumatic experience and want to write about it for therapeutic reasons, even if no one else reads it? Or do you have an inspiring life story that you´re hoping to share with a wider public? Or perhaps you have a rather ordinary life, but you want to write about it in an extraordinary way, using humour, literary references or a lyrical style?

Whatever your reasons for wanting to tell your story, this memoir-writing workshop will help you achieve your goal. If you´ve never attempted any creative writing, it´s never too late to start. If you have published fiction or non-fiction but are wary of the vulnerability that comes with memoir writing, this will encourage and inspire you. And if you have already published a memoir, you will know that writing is a lifelong learning process, and we can always aim to improve.

We will look at different ways of telling the same story, explore narrative arches and dialogue, beginnings and endings, and hooks to catch the reader´s attention. You will learn to select the best bits and kill your darlings, focus on your strengths and avoid your weaknesses, and find the courage to step out of your comfort zone. We will talk about the pitfalls of personal writing, how to write about yourself without writing only about yourself, how to avoid ego and vanity, and how to transform a deeply personal story into something more universal. And we will write, write, write every day, between group discussions, individual sessions, and outings to places of specific interest to us as writers or potential writers.

Marita van der Vyver has more than 4 decades of experience as an award-winning, best-selling author across many genres. Her humorous memoirs about her not-so glamorous life in France (Home Is Where the Heart Is/ Die hart van ons huis and A Fountain in France/ ´n Fontein voor ons deur) have been widely read in the past twenty years. More recently, she has also published a memoir about her South African childhood (A Long Letter to My Daughter/ ´n Baie lang brief aan my dogter) as well as a memoir about travelling for fifteen months without a fixed address (My Year of Fear and Freedom/ My jaar van vrees en vryheid). She has presented week-long creative writing courses in Greece and South Africa, one-to-one online courses for SA Writers College, and three-month online courses for the Afrikaans chapter of the prestigious international writers organisation PEN. She has now designed a brand-new workshop focusing on memoir writing for Château de Najade.

Program:

Monday morning: Introductory session (2-3 hours), group discussions alternated with practical writing exercises.

Monday afternoon: A stroll through the ancient town of Sainte-Sevère-sur-Indre, sharing the story of Jacques Tati and Jour de Fête, with prompts for a snippet of writing that participants can practise in a local café, in the cool garden or next to the swimming pool at Najade.

Tuesday morning: A short drive to visit George Sand´s home in Nohant. This famous author of the region led an unconventional life that was much more memorable than the many conventional works of fiction she published. We have to ask ourselves: If she´d chosen to write a memoir, how would she have done it? We can play with the possibilities while having a picnic in the beautiful garden of her home.

Tuesday afternoon: One-to-one sessions where participants can ask specific questions or have private chats with the presenter. The rest of the time, when you are not with Marita, you can rest, write, or think about what you want to write.

Wednesday morning: Another 2-3-hour session, with group discussions alternating with practical writing exercises.

Wednesday afternoon: One-to-one sessions with participants, or free time to work on a piece of writing that can be discussed during the last group session on Friday morning.

Thursday morning: Short drive to the weekly market of Boussac, with prompts for a brief piece of writing.

Thursday afternoon: Louis Jansen van Vuuren, who has also written memoirs about his life in France, will join the group for an informal talk. Marita and Louis will pick each other´s brains, while participants can ask questions or comment on their own writing process.

Friday morning: Another 2-3 hour session of group discussions on the difficulty of pinning down deeply personal stuff. By now, we´ll all know one another a little better and feel a little less vulnerable. We discuss the final piece of writing each participant has delivered, compare it with something written on the first day, and take note of what we´ve learned and what we´d still like to learn.

Friday afternoon: A brief and playful group session to end on a light note, with a last spontaneous writing exercise that should be pure fun.