Outline Your Memoir

a free workshop

Sometimes it feels daunting to start writing your lifestory down.

So let’s start sorting through and organizing all the details you need to structure your memoir.

You’ve always wanted to write your memoir.

It feels like a calling, a joyful and terrifying challenge you can’t avoid, yet somehow keep avoiding.

You wonder if your story is interesting.

Or if you’ll be opening too many cans of worms to manage.

Or if you might hurt someone or many someones in the process of examining your own life. And you don’t want to cause more pain, to yourself or others.

Plus it’s overwhelming. And you wonder if you’re deluding yourself. If you’ll be a terrible writer.

So you just keep putting it off. Because of this you’re starting to feel frustrated. Pent up.

Because when you’re called to something, you can’t set it aside.

The calling keeps tapping you on the shoulder, subtly tickling your feet, and sometimes not-so-subtly whacking you – metaphorically – with a frying pan to the head, until you heed the call.

The call to turn and face your own stories. Your own lineages. Your own legacy. And start writing it down. Start exploring. Start healing.

So how do we look at our vast, storied and varied lives and get started with writing it all down?

We start by identifying underlying structures and patterns, using … fairytales.

It’s fun and insightful, I promise.

In this workshop you will review your life so far, clarify patterns and themes and then draw out the structure of your stories in this swift plunge into your own fascinating self.

This includes:

  • Your timelines
  • Rites of passage (both the known and the unknown)
  • Moments of decision
  • Pivotal experiences
  • Themes and patterns (perhaps some you never knew were there)

You’ll finish the workshop with:

  • Enthusiasm!!
  • a timeline of your life so far
  • a detailed map of the themes that have dominated your life
  • ideas and inspiration and a plan for where to start and what to focus on
  • brainstorming documents to support your memoir writing efforts
  • a playful sense of the future direction of your life
That was an amazing session! I am so impressed with the insightful process you’ve developed, how well organized the session was, and the kindness and encouragement you expressed throughout. Thanks for allowing me to experience it.
Alicia T.

USA

Sign up for this pre-recorded on-demand workshop here

Meet your guide:

Hi! I’m Janelle Hardy. I work with creative, sensitive big-hearted folk, helping them to grow, heal and thrive.

I’ve been working as a trauma-informed Structural Integrator doing one-on-one hands-on healing bodywork for 13+ years, and teaching individuals and groups for even longer.

I’ve got a particular passion for our individual and cultural stories, a deep reverence for the power of stories and identity, and great respect for the immensely beautiful force of questioning our stories, even as we honour them.

My passion lies is weaving our connection with the creative arts and the body together with deep cultural knowing and self exploration (and lifestories and memoirs are a great way to do that) to create spaciousness, ease and joy in our lives.

What this means for you is that I’ve got an uncommon ability to listen deeply, ask useful questions, see patterns, draw threads together, do my research and guide you towards your goals.

I’m also a published writer with a BA in Anthropology, an MA in Dance and a Diploma in Hellerwork Structural Integration. I’ve worked as a research assistant at Yukon Archives, as a teacher and teaching assistant at various colleges and universities, and taught creative writing and healing workshops online and in person.

So let’s step towards our calling, towards our stories, towards our personal mythologies, and start the mythmaking.

Join me in outlining your memoir. It’ll be playful, fun and rich!

Janelle

Frequently Asked Questions

Do you record the workshops?

Yes! But it’s more fun if you show up for the live call.

What do I need to participate?

An email account. The link to the workshop videocall will be send to you via e-mail. Access to the internet. Our videocalls require being connected to the internet. Time. This will workshop will take about 2 hours. Optional: earbuds/headphones so the sound quality is better (recommended if you’ll have background noise and/or get distracted by background noise.  

How are you qualified to do this work?
Thanks for asking.

I’ve got an exceptional amount of skill and experience in interviewing, writing, working with people one-on-one and drawing out stories.

I’m a great listener and I’m always attuned for patterns, deeper meanings and great stories.

I have an appreciation for context, history, and take the role of helping people birth their creations into the world very seriously.

Currently I teach a group memoir writing process twice a year as well, called The Art of Personal Mythmaking.

Why does this only get me an outline for my memoir?
Good question!

Writing a memoir takes a lot of time and energy.

However, getting started on a memoir requires a bit of structure first. You need to know what you want to focus on, where your starting points are, what the ‘lay of the land’ is, so to speak.

This small workshop gives you enough of a plan to get started.

Can I get more services added to this? I want to write my entire memoir.

Absolutely. I also offer an online 13-module transformational memoir-writing course The Art of Personal Mythmaking. It’s rich, deep and wonderful.