Learning while teaching

A trip to Florida

A few years ago, a mutual friend introduced me to Georgia Court, who owns Bookstore 1 in Sarasota. My friend and I went down for a reading/presentation, as I was launching my second book, Eva and Eve. After the event, we stayed a few extra days. It was late winter, a time of year in the Northeast when I crave sun rays with the same desperation as dark chocolate. Ohmygod did it feel so delicious to be in a t-shirt instead of a puffy jacket. Palm trees instead of bare branches. We lounged on the beach, swam, and kayaked in the canals that lead to Sarasota Bay, hoping to spot a manatee. In just a few days, our pallid winter skin flushed with an infusion of vitamin D.

While in Florida, Georgia ventured the idea that I might teach a class for The Chautauqua Institution, a cultural organization in upstate New York where she spends her summers. It’s hard to explain Chautauqua to outsiders, but the best I can come up with is a summer camp for intelligent, intellectual grown-ups located in the most adorable quaint Victorian village on the shoreline of a beautiful lake. A gifted poet herself, Georgia served as director of the writing program for a time. After the Florida trip, I connected with the new director of the writing program and conceived a memoir scene-writing workshop that I led online. The following summer, I traveled to Chautauqua and led a similar (sold out!) workshop. And then, this past winter, I traveled back to Sarasota to lead a similar workshop at Georgia’s bookstore. Truly an excellent place to visit if you should find yourself in the area and a fortress of hope in these difficult times.

The workshop: telling stories in scenes is what it’s all about. Often, we’re tempted to tell a story with narration, but this can be the fastest way to clear a room or incite a reader to shut the book and possibly hurl it across the room. My workshop course curriculum aims to teach by example. I choose a week’s worth of engaging scenes to read and discuss. Each day covers different topics such as truth-telling, dialogue, sensory experience, research, how to deal with family members who make an appearance in your story. Anne Lamott’s advice is wise: while writing, pretend everyone is dead. Later you can deal with the inevitable conflicts. We have writing time in each class and then I offer an exercise for our next meeting. Adult students are wonderful—they take assignments seriously and I see progress in our few meetings. Best of all, teaching offers an introvert like me a chance to share what I’ve learned and to learn from my students who share their lives so honestly during our sessions. Teaching is, after all, a kind of live theater performance and I’ve welcomed this training opportunity. Guiding others helps me think through my own writing dilemmas.

Side note: I’ll be leading another scene-writing workshop at Bookstore 1 in Sarasota next January, details to follow.

At this latest workshop, I met a writer and writing coach named Jason Cannon, who is in the early writing stages of his own memoir. When the class ended, he asked if I’d be a guest on his podcast. I’d like to share the link here to give people a taste of the workshop experience. I hope you enjoy.

No One Will Buy This Story

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You can find out more about my memoirs Perfection and Eva and Eve here and purchase here.

I work privately with memoir writers. You can reach out via my website: juliemetz.com.