Writing a memoir – a true story drawn from one’s own life – is like making lasagna.
Everybody has a different way of doing it, but if the recipe contains a few essential ingredients, it usually turns out pretty well. The Museum at Campbell River is offering a unique opportunity on Sunday, March 24, from 1-3 p.m., to attend a seminar with Charlotte Gill, the Haig-Brown Writer-in-Residence. Entitled ‘In the First Person – The Art of Personal Narrative’ this two-hour seminar will cover the fundamentals of personal narrative.
The discussion begins with the question: what is memoir? From that question, the basic essential ingredients for telling fact-based stories in the first person will be covered.
Participants will be shown how to dip into the creative writer’s toolbox to look at useful story elements such as point of view, character and the scene. Lastly, Charlotte will touch on how to design and plan your narrative, leaving lots of time for Q&A.
Gill’s tree-planting book ‘Eating Dirt’ was nominated for the Hilary Weston Writers’ Trust Prize, the Charles Taylor Prize, and two B.C. Book Prizes. It won the 2012 B.C. National Award for Canadian Non-Fiction. Her previous book, Ladykiller, was a finalist for the Governor General’s Literary Award and winner of the B.C. Book Prize for fiction. Her work has appeared in Best Canadian Stories, The Journey Prize Stories, and many magazines. Gill teaches creative writing at UBC and the Banff Centre. The cost for the workshop is $20. Call the Museum at 250-287-3103 to register.