Memoir writing with Cathie Pelletier

    Aroostook County author Cathie Pelletier is offering a rare opportunity for area residents to participate in a three-day workshop that will guide you in writing your own memoir.
    The class will meet on three afternoons, June 24, 25 and 26, from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m. at the Houlton Higher Education Center.
    Each student will receive a 50-page pdf file that will guide them in the future, long after the class is over. The pages contain dozens of “Memory Joggers,” questions that, when answered, actually help write and shape each memoir. It also contains numerous hints for writing techniques, timelines that will place one’s life story in the context of history, memoir titles and chapter title suggestions, and much more.
MEET THE AUTHOR — Award-winning novelist Cathie Pelletier, center, will hold a series of workshop at the Houlton Higher Education Center on writing methods including how to write a memoir.
    The first day will be “Show, Don’t Tell.” This is a golden rule of writing, and yet, many people who have been aspiring writers for years still don’t know that rule, or how to apply it. Participants will work with the concept and each will have an assignment for the evening: Write about an interesting person in your life, in less than 500 words. Your father? Mother? A grandparent? A schoolteacher who made a mark on your life? Volunteers may share something they have previously written, for group discussion.
    Thursday’s topic will be creating character. Discussion will focus on ways to bring the people you want in your memoir to full life on the page. It will incorporate creating dialogue and how characters speak. Students will be asked to read their character sketch assignment (not required) and the discussion will be on ways to make the sketch stronger.
    Does the character live on the page? Was dialogue used effectively? Assignment: In 500 words or less, describe a place from your childhood that you want to share with others. Was it a swimming hole? A city library? The attic of your house? Discussion will also be on structuring the memoir.
    The final day students will be building a place. We all remember so well the farmhouse where we grew up, the city apartment building, or the new ranch-style home in the suburbs. But how do we bring that “place” to life so that someone reading our memoirs long after we’re gone will be able to smell the freshly cut hay, or hear the city traffic, or get to know the neighbors up and down that quiet street in the suburbs? Volunteers will share their sketches and group discussion will center on ways to make them better and more vivid to the reader. Discussion will again be on shaping the entire memoir.
    Optional assignment to be e-mailed (or sent by regular mail) to the instructor for evaluation: In 1000 words or less, either begin the first chapter of your memoir, or choose a place in time, and write, write, write.
    Pelletier said, “No one is expected to begin writing a memoir until they are emotionally ready. However, receiving the Writing Booklet and listening to the class discussions are very important to the process. Perhaps some folks are waiting to begin their memoirs in the autumn, or during those long winter nights ahead. This class will instruct them in how to begin their life stories, and how to stay focused. It will prepare and guide them for when the time is right.”
    “It’s just a blank, white sheet unless you sit down and begin to write words on it,” said Pelletier. “Don’t be overwhelmed by the whole project, just concentrate on one small section at a time. One day, you’ll look up and see many pages with lots of words and you’ll be finished!”
    While this is a class for people interested in writing a memoir for their children and grandchildren, it’s also a class that can well serve those people who are also interested in working on fiction and nonfiction projects.
    Houlton Higher Education is located at 18 Military Street. The fee is $250. To register, please e-mail Kara Taylor at nashbook@aol.com, or telephone Rachel Rice, at the University of Maine at Presque Isle, 207-768-9447.