Class Title: The Story of Your Life
Instructor: Lily Iona MacKenzie 
Class Term: July 18-August 29, 2016
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Synopsis

In Why Survive? Growing Old in America (1975), psychiatrist Robert Butler claims that reminiscence, an activity engaged in by people of all ages, is heightened in older adults and is an essential part of healthy aging, a process that can start at any age. This class will help participants trigger their own significant moments and shape them into stories to either publish or share with their friends and family.

Class Description

Virginia Woolf has observed "the past is beautiful because one never realizes an emotion at the time. It expands later, and thus we don't have complete emotions about the present, only about the past..

I've been giving readings from my novel Fling! at senior residences because the female characters are lively older women. Each time I visit one of these facilities and chat with the individuals living there, I'm struck by how rich and eventful their lives have been.

Telling stories, and repeating those that hold particular significance, is vital to the creative process of achieving psychological integration—a process rooted in the discovery and passing on of one's legacy. Concurrently, the field of oral history, initially revived in the 1960s, has gained new respect and attention as a method of recovering and validating the lives of ordinary people and, in particular, the lives of women who often have not had positions of power or status.

Each session, we'll read and discuss the work of veteran memoir writers for insights into the crafting of personal narrative. The stories we then write will draw upon lessons learned from literature, as well as weekly instructor and class feedback.

I'll give writing prompts & readings each week by email. You will use these readings as models for your own work. You also will give each other feedback on how to make your stories reader-worthy. In other words, you'll be thinking about an audience that will guide how we revise our pieces. Of course, I also will suggest ways to improve your drafts.

At the end of this class, students will be able to trigger their own significant moments and shape them into stories to either publish or share with their friends and family.

Instruction/Communication Method: I'll give writing prompts & readings each week by email. You will use these readings as models for your own work. You also will give each other feedback on how to make your stories reader-worthy. In other words, you'll be thinking about an audience that will guide how we revise our pieces. Of course, I also will suggest ways to improve your drafts.

For more information: Story Circle Online Classes