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Rated 5 out of 5 by HawkesValente from The Best. I am a conservative Christian, a Republican, and a writer. I only mention those first two things because a fellow conservative seemed unable to benefit from this course due to the instructor's inability to keep her politics completely hidden. I couldn't possibly care less about her political persuasion. This is unquestionably my favorite of all the writing courses I have taken over the past 30 years. I will be referring back to the lessons often. Do not be fooled by her brevity. Each lesson packs a punch.

Date published: 2024-06-28

Rated 1 out of 5 by Iger from California Arrogance She inserts her political and social opinions. She enabled a 'person in the audience' to subtly bash Alabama and later made a negative reference to 'a man named Trump' in one of her examples about 'paragraphs'. After this, I quit the video.

Date published: 2024-02-02

Rated 5 out of 5 by Suitearia from I found this workshop absolutely helpful I am a beginning writer without a lot of information on the process, the "how to". While most of the lessons are brief, and the information presented at a high level, to me the course was extremely informative.

Date published: 2023-08-03

Rated 5 out of 5 by JimS1952 from more then expected After writing my Camp Lejeune experiences during Vietnam war days recently I became interested in writing more - better. Joyce Maynard is fantastic in assisting me going forward with my new "writing" hobby. The course was like Joyce was communicating with me personally.

Date published: 2023-02-28

Rated 5 out of 5 by Missouri from I have a story to tell I have enjoyed the learning experience and pick up some tips on writing. Thank you

Date published: 2022-12-17

Rated 5 out of 5 by Francine M from I have learned a lot and changed my perspective on Purchased many courses over the years. Cannot stop learning

Date published: 2022-06-09

Rated 1 out of 5 by mrdislaw from Not a Great Courses course I will refrain from making comments about the presenter's personal life even though she seemingly enjoyed discussing it with her audience, which I found distracting. I have not read any of Ms. Maynard's books but she obviously has an audience and must have talent in this literary genre. Even though the inherent subject matter of memoir writing is personal, this does not translate into a writer being able to communicate the literary devices a memoirist uses to someone else. I really wish The Teaching Company would engage another writer (or a series of writers) with more academic qualifications to construct another course on memoir writing.

Date published: 2022-05-22

Rated 2 out of 5 by sharmcc from Buyer Beware The good: I find the presenter engaging and practical; I appreciate the format of engagement with a live audience and I think many courses would benefit from this. The not-as-good: Shame on me for assuming that all courses would have ~30-minute length lectures. Some of these are as short as 3 minutes and do indeed average 12 minutes over the 26 total. In fairness, this is stated at the top of the lecture list, so I just need to be more diligent if I make future purchases. The brevity of these modules became even more problematic as there were apparently technical problems and about half the time instead of auto-advancing, it would repeat the previous lecture. So I was always having to intervene to get to new material. Even more annoying when you are having to intervene every 5-12 minutes between "lectures" instead of every 30-45 minutes as expected.

Date published: 2022-04-14

Overview

Discover how to translate your life into captivating, resonant stories with Writing Your Story, by acclaimed memoirist Joyce Maynard. In 26 lessons with the feel of a friendly, collaborative writing workshop, you'll explore how to identify the right stories to tell; examine tips and tricks with language, dialogue, and description; and find inspiration for everything from cultivating a writing practice to handling rejection.

About

Joyce Maynard

My job here is to give you permission to tell your story.

INSTITUTION

CreativeLive

A native of New Hampshire, Joyce Maynard began publishing her stories in magazines when she was thirteen years old. She first came to national attention with the publication of her New York Times cover story, “An Eighteen Year Old Looks Back on Life”, in 1972, when she was a freshman at Yale. Since then, she has been a reporter and columnist for The New York Times, a syndicated newspaper columnist whose “Domestic Affairs” column appeared in over fifty papers nationwide, a regular contributor to NPR and national magazines including Vogue, The New York Times Magazine, and many more. She is a longtime performer with The Moth.

Maynard is the author of seventeen books, including the novel To Die For and the best-selling memoir, At Home in the World—translated into sixteen languages. Her novel, To Die For, was adapted for the screen by Buck Henry for a film directed by Gus Van Sant, in which Joyce can be seen in the role of Nicole Kidman’s lawyer. Her novel Labor Day was adapted and directed by Jason Reitman for a film starring Kate Winslet and Josh Brolin, to whom Joyce offered instruction for making the pie that appeared in a crucial scene in the film.

The mother of three grown children, Maynard runs workshops in memoir at her home in Lafayette California. In 2002 she founded The Lake Atitlan Writing Workshop in San Marcos La Laguna, Guatemala, where she hosts a weeklong workshop in personal storytelling every winter.

She is a fellow of The MacDowell Colony and Yaddo.