Lessons
Class Introduction: What Happens When We Keep Secrets?
08:05 2Name Your Obsessions
13:09 3Stick to Your Story
16:57 4Identify Your Journey
06:27 5Identify Your Journey Take Your Story Apart
15:38 6The Landing Place
09:05 7The Honesty Question
05:12 8What's the Worst That Can Happen?
06:34Descriptive Versus Interpretive Language
10:52 10Diagramming the Sentence
09:25 11The Importance of Economy
09:45 12Dialogue and Rhythm
09:09 13Six Common Mistakes Writers Make
08:09 14The Paragraph
02:52 15Building the Arc
03:07 16The Test of a Good Memoir
17:21 17The Container
04:21 18Two Containers From Scratch
30:03 19Developing Your Container
17:46 20Dissecting a Good Container Essay
29:36 21The Writing Life
02:35 22Creating a Writing Practice
21:39 23What Gets in Your Way?
15:11 24The Non-Writing Process
10:57 25Criticism and Rejection
03:57 26What Happens When We Tell Our Truth?
31:47Lesson Info
Criticism and Rejection
So one of the things that happens when you send a manuscript out is rejection. And my big fear for you is that that can freeze you and stop you from working, and just make you feel that the work is, that there's no point pursuing the work. So I'd rather see you in that happy state of creating the work and making the work better for as long as possible. But you need to also share your work and there are ways to do it. Of course, I'm talking about your critics, your tribe of fellow writers, but you can also share your work, give readings, create events where other people read their work too. If you're a ham like me and you're comfortable standing up in front of a crowd, go tell a story at The Moth, which is a fantastic storytelling group all over the country now. I started telling stories with The Moth when it was only in New York over 20 years ago. It's all over the country now. Go to a Moth StorySLAM and do something really brave. Put your name in the hat, stand up and tell the story. ...
You'll learn a huge amount from doing that. Send your stories off to places like The Sun, a wonderful magazine that's not about famous, well known, published names. It's about people telling honest stories really well. And one other thing that, and this has really changed, there used to be a kind of, it wasn't thought well of if a person published their own book. It was called vanity publishing. That's not the case anymore. Many writers that I've worked with have published wonderful stories themselves. They've just decided, "I'm not going to be held hostage "by the concerns of the marketplace." There are lots of great books that just aren't the kind of book that a publisher would feel they could sell 20,000 copies of. There are lots of reasons why a good book might not sell. So publish it yourself, and if you've got the energy and the stamina for it, go out and give talks on it to groups and introduce yourself to independent booksellers. And bring your copies along and go to clubs and have that book on the shelf. Just make sure, before you publish it, so often writers that I've worked with send me their self-published books and I think, "Oh, that coulda' been really great. "They shoulda' worked harder first." They might have that i-t-s, i-t apostrophe s problem, or something like that. Just work really hard before you do it. And sometimes, and I think Jon, this is true for you, you self-published your book about losing your daughter first, and then, it was sold to a mainstream publisher. Wow. Yep, and, you know what, after all that happens, you get the agent, you get the publishing deal, the book comes out. Guess what? I'll just tell you. I drive a 1995 Honda Civic (laughs) and I've been driving that car for 20 years. And it's okay because I didn't get in this business to make a whole lotta money. Every now and then I have. A book has been sold to the movies and I had a really good year, but I don't do it for the money. I actually... that's the good news, not the bad news, because if the money was the only thing that was going to make it worthwhile for you, then for most of you, it wouldn't be very worthwhile. But in fact, there is something much more valuable that you can get from telling your story, and actually, much more accessible.
Class Materials
Free Bonus Material
Ratings and Reviews
Annie Y
Joyce Maynard will meet her writing students exactly where many of us find ourselves stranded: at that point in the road where our creative impulse and need for expression begins to lose breath but our sense of story and good writing habits may falter. Her teaching is a glorious, energetic, engaged alchemy of encouragement, permission for wild creativity, and feet-on-the-ground, pencil-to-paper, lessons for organizing and writing your own story. I left this incredible day empowered to tell mine, and totally unafraid to let go of what does not fit into the narrative. She gives concrete examples of good writing, shows you exactly why it's good, as well as hilarious bits of not-so-good writing. Yes, this is a memoir class, but the lessons are simply excellent rules for good writing. The syllabus is ambitious, but Ms. Maynard's practical magic is her gift to render all of this utterly do-able. I loved every minute, left inspired by the entire experience, and profoundly grateful for her wisdom and humor. Thank you!
Diane Shipley
This was a wonderful class, the best I’ve taken, even though I wasn’t there in person! Joyce is an inspiring teacher who makes you feel like your stories matter and guides you toward identifying which narratives to tell and how best to tell them — very few writing classes delve into the mechanics in this way and I really appreciated it. I also appreciated some of her more unusual advice — like that it’s important to think about what you want to write, sometimes for a long time, before you start. By going through students’ stories and providing lots of examples of the principles she teaches, you can see how to adapt the lessons to your own work, and I’ve already started doing so. I also found Joyce very compassionate about issues around privacy and shame and everything that comes up when people share personal stories, and very generous in sharing her own experiences so it’s clear she knows what she’s talking about. I recommend this class wholeheartedly.
user-3c7c11
Thank you so much for your brilliant course, Joyce Maynard. I am blown away by how much I've learned from you, and how warmly and joyfully you've imparted your wisdom, your skills as a writer and your own beautiful humanity. I am so grateful for this experience. You are not only a gifted storyteller, but a truly gifted teacher, and a delightful, inspiring human being. I hope to learn from you in person in Lake Atitlan at some point in the future.