This past month, SheWrites launched a series of online classes, one of which is memoir writing for moms. I've been teaching a version of this class online for three years to over 300 mothers around the world and it's been an amazing journey.

I started the classes because of my passion for "momoir" writing, writing about my experiences as a mother as I was living them. All the struggles I was having - with my marriage, my career, my mother - all seemed so urgent and by writing it down, I was engaging in an act of self-discovery so much more rewarding and transformative than therapy. 

When I wrote about my husband - and had those essays published in magazines far and wide - I would show him the story. It was often easier than talking. And he and I would then engage - finally - in a real conversation about our problems and it would help us.

I'm not the first - or the last - writer to discover the power of memoir writing and I'm not the first mother to discover how incredible it can be to write about your journey - while you're living it. I've gone back to some of the writing I've done when my kids were babies, and I'm so grateful that I have it down on paper. I couldn't have written it now. I'm too faraway. I don't remember the tenor of my days, the tenuous nature of my heart. 

This is all to say that writing about being a mother - whether for this class I'm teaching in 2 weeks on SheWrites or in general - is ongoing. Every phase, every year is new and there is so much to say.

This class is not just for young moms who are navigating the terrain of new motherhood and all the struggles that come with that. It's for step-moms and adoptive moms and queer moms and grandmoms. Really, it's for moms of all ages and stages.

And the beauty of a group class is that we can all read and share each other's stories and learn from each other's experiences. That's just one small benefit of the Writing for Moms classes.

In my very first class I ever taught, my best student was a grandmother and her story was so incredibly powerful that she - a first-time writer - had it published in Canada's national newspaper. She was astounded by her success. I was not. And I know we were all grateful to have her in the group.

Since then, I've had many grandmothers in my writing groups and many, many other different kinds of mothers and the diversity is what makes it all worthwhile. 

For more information on the SheWrites Writing for Moms online classes, email [email protected]

The first session starts October 6. Sign up soon!