Join me in my live, two-hour class, and discover the Five Things I’ve Learned about how to bring focus to a singular slice of your life in ways that produce the story that you want to read – and write.

Just before my first novel, Somewhere Off the Coast of Maine, was published in 1987, I met a friendly man at a book party whom I regaled with stories of my life as a TWA flight attendant—a job I had just left a few months earlier after flying for eight years. “I’m an editor at the Style section of The Washington Post,” the man said. “If you write down exactly what you’ve told me, we’ll publish it on Sunday.” I did, and sure enough there was my essay in The Washington Post. My book publicist read it and called me in to a meeting. “You should write a memoir,” she said, waving the newspaper. I laughed. I was an ordinary person living a pretty ordinary life. Who in the world cared about me or my life? It took me over ten years to learn that memoirs are mostly about just that: finding the extraordinary in the ordinary. My first memoir wasn’t about my days as TWA flight attendant. That one, Fly Girl, was my fifth one. Yes, the woman who thought her life wasn’t interesting enough has written five memoirs.

What I’ve learned after all this time is what I’m hoping to share with you in my upcoming two-hour class for writers, Five Things I’ve Learned about Writing Memoir.

One of the first things I learned about writing memoir is that a memoir is not an autobiography. Rather, a memoir is about one slice of your life. The best example of this is Patti Smith, who has lived a life worthy of an autobiography. Yet instead, she has written three memoirs: one about her younger days with Robert Mapplethorpe, one about the death of her husband, and one follows a year in her life through photographs and Instagram posts. Are you trying to cover too much time in your memoir? Or maybe you aren’t sure where to begin it? Or where to end it? Are you concerned about hurting the people you are writing about? Or possibly even worried about getting sued? Maybe you are just having trouble getting started. Believe me, I have had all those concerns, and more. But after experiencing them all myself, and teaching memoir at universities and writing conferences all over the world, I have learned more than five things to help you along.

Although I will share my own experiences with you, we will also have discussions about you and your story. We’ll read some examples from published memoirs. And we will consider the advice Eudora Welty gave writers: “To be a writer, all you have to do is sit on your own front porch.” I’m looking forward to helping you discover what’s on your front porch and how to turn it into memoir.

The most important thing is that you will leave our two hours together not just with inspiration, clarity, practical advice and tips. You’ll also have a clear way forward.

I can’t wait to meet you and help you find your story!

– Ann Hood