Edit Memoir Like a Producer

with JJ Lee

When: Saturday, November 18, 2023, 1:00 pm to 4:00 pm PST

Where: Online via Zoom

What makes for a compelling memoir? And how can you, as an editor or writing coach, best work with your clients to translate their lived experiences onto the page?

Join JJ Lee—award-winning memoirist, radio host, and writing teacher—as he explains common problems that arise in memoir drafts, and strategies for addressing these problems with your clients.

After attending this seminar, participants will be able to:

• identify a memoir’s central story question (or lack thereof),
• spot overreliance on the habitual past tense,
• guide clients toward the specific and explain why doing so matters,
• use beat sheets to structure a memoir, and
• coach writers on impactful scene building.

Participants will have the opportunity to discuss the seminar content, ask questions, and put their learning into practice on a sample passage from a real memoir. While this seminar is geared toward editors, it may also be suitable for writing coaches, writing teachers, and other professionals who work with individuals to tell personal stories through written or spoken mediums.

Participants will need a stable internet connection and the ability to open and apply markup to PDF documents. Participants must be able to attend the Zoom seminar via video call, rather than by telephone.

This seminar will be recorded.

JJ Lee (he/him) is a memoir writer and essayist. His book The Measure of Man: the Story of a Father, a Son, and a Suit was a Governor General's, Hubert Davis BC Book Prize, Charles Taylor, and Hilary Weston Writers' Trust finalist for nonfiction. He teaches the nonfiction workshop at The Writer's Studio (Simon Fraser University) and teaches writing at The Shadbolt Centre for the Arts. His essays and features have appeared in ELLE Canada, ELLE Man, Fashion, Flare, Montecristo, and Nuvo magazines.