The desire to write a memoir is real and deep. You have much to say about life, love, grief, the universe. Your memories and moments are the memoir.
Writing your memories is essential—for brain health, for imagination, for art, for creativity, for legacy. For honoring your life, just as it has been, because you can. Because now is the moment.
Think of your stories as balls of yarn waiting to be woven together. There is a golden thread—a theme—that runs through all of them, connecting what might feel like scattered memories into something whole and meaningful.
Most of us aren't professional writers, but we carry stories worth telling. Whether you want to understand yourself better, preserve family history, or share hard-won wisdom with others, your life holds moments of beauty, struggle, transformation, and meaning that deserve to be shaped into legacy.
In this course, I'll share exactly the process I used to write my book, Pockets of Grace: Lessons from Darkness, Lessons from Light—the same techniques that helped me transform scattered memories into a cohesive, powerful memoir. This includes the visual mapping process I used to discover the golden thread running through my own stories, and a concrete framework for understanding the emotional shape of each chapter.
What You'll Explore
Think of this course not as climbing a mountain, but as a road trip—one meaningful journey, thoughtfully chosen, rather than an attempt to cover every road you've ever traveled. In six weeks, we'll explore:
• Identify the stories that matter most to you right now—and why you feel called to tell them
• Find your road: choose one meaningful journey rather than trying to capture your whole life at once
• Bring the real people in your life to the page in ways that feel true and alive
• Move from summary into scene—learning to "show" rather than just "tell"
• Use a visual mapping process (the same one I used for my own memoir) to discover your golden thread and organize your stories into a cohesive whole
Guiding Philosophy
We are all writers. In the words of Pat Schneider, founder of Amherst Writers & Artists, whenever we talk with each other, we are "writing stories on the air." If you think, you write—even if it's not yet on the page.
Our stories shape who we are, and we all carry wisdom. When we tap into our stories and get clear on them, they can inform how we choose to live. Memoir writing is a creative method to express your innermost being beyond time and age.
“Remember what it was to be me; that is always the point.”
— Joan Didion
This course honors that intention.
What to Expect
• Weekly structured lessons that balance craft instruction with hands-on writing practice
• Specific exercises and prompts designed to develop your memoir, one story at a time
• Direct instruction from someone who has completed the memoir-writing journey herself
• A warm, inclusive environment where the courage memoir requires is treated as part of the craft—not an obstacle to it
• A focus on creating a cohesive narrative, not just collecting disconnected stories
This class is taught by Heidi Gessner, United Church of Christ Minister, author of Pockets of Grace: Lessons from Darkness, Lessons from Light, and former palliative care chaplain at UNC Hospitals, where she created and co-led Writing for Resilience — witnessing lives change and healing begin through the act of writing.
Scholarships are available. All supplies included. Adults ages 18 and up.