www.magicofmemoir.com

1. CLASS 1
The Evolution of Your Voice—
Your Story, On and Off the Page
BROOKE WARNER
& LINDA JOY MYERS
M A S T E R I N G V O I C E

2. • Journaling
• Blogging and social media posts
• Academic papers
• Poetry
• Telling a story
• Confessing
• Lecturing
. . . And other ways
How We Self-Express

3. • When you first start, voice is one thing—
what happened; facts; getting it all on the
page
• Themes; what holds the book together;
what it all means and why you’re telling
“what happened”; learning what serves
your story and your reader and stitching
together your narrative
• Latest stages: poetry; imagery; figures of
speech; takeaways for the reader
The Evolution of Your
Memoir Voice

4. p. 103
I was sixteen years old. I’d become something far more violent than
Hulk. I was a liar; a cheater; a manipulator; a fat, happysad, bald-
headed black boy with a heart murmur; and according to you and
the white girl I lied to every day, I was a good dude.
Listen to Kiese on Write-Minded:
https://podcast.shewrites.com/the-art-and-cost-of-reckoning/
Examples
p. 258
I do not get vague or generic appetite, which will be satisfied,
more or less, with just anything that is handy. I will skip a meal
rather than eat the corner joint’s interpretation of eggs
Benedict with spinach, button mushrooms, and “blood orange”
hollandaise sauce. I don’t eat that kind of shit.

5. • Breaking silence to find your voice. Managing fears
to find your truth.
• Writing the secrets; putting into words the unvoiced.
• Your voice and its different moods: vulnerability, anger,
blame, excitement, hope, joy.
• Danger of expression—we learn to suppress who we are,
what we think. We have to break out.
• Putting truth on the page. Raw truth, never before written
truth. The power of words. The danger of words. The
absence of words.
Finding Your Voice—an
Exploration into the
Labyrinth of the Unknown
“Everybody is original, if he tells the truth, if he speaks from himself. But it must be
from his true self and not from the self he thinks he should be.” —Brenda Ueland

6. p. 54
I vaguely understand that I am supposed to read the books
and learn the lessons. I do not believe they are important.
How can this knowledge help me? How can teachers teach me
anything? Doesn’t my father teach me all I need to know? Doesn’t
he always tell me so?
Why then, do I lack words for what I know? At school we are taught
French, but still, even in this language, I learn no words for what I know, for
what I am taught at night. So if words don’t exist, if definitions don’t exist, if
signs and symbols don’t exist, then maybe people and actions don’t exist
either. None of us exists. Night doesn’t exist. Bodies don’t exist. I don’t
exist, for surely I know no language that might prove otherwise.
What is the definition of “father,” “mother,” “sister,” “daughter,”
“soul,” “family,” “love”? Do I ever learn? Maybe all the definitions I learn
are wrong.
Because I Remember Terror
Father I Remember You,
by Sue William Silverman

7. p. 58
Andrew, you will just be waking in your first-floor bedroom. After you turn
off the alarm you will revel in silence, my noisy addictwoman gone from the
house. Even though you know only a fraction of who I am and what I do,
you must sense my whirlwind breath in the bedroom above you.
You must know I am not well.
I need you to chaperone me. You won’t. Of course you can’t. Even if
you wanted to, you couldn’t. For my addiction is stronger than my love for
you, even though I love you much more than this addiction.
Love Sick,
by Sue William Silverman

8. • Fear
• Imposter syndrome
• Qualifying
• Hero-worship
• Ego
• Rigidity
• Wanting vindication/to prove a point
• Not reading other people’s work
Things That Stand in
the Way of Voice

9. • The keys to the kingdom lie here
• How do you know if you’re risking?
• What does it mean to give yourself permission?
• What does courage feel like to you?
• Reframing your relationship with courage
Courage & Permission

10. • Brief meditation: imagine a sacred safe
bubble around you, invisible protection.
• “Imagination comes very slowly and
quietly . . . the imagination needs quiet
moodling—long inefficient, happy idling,
dawdling and puttering.”
• Invite your free voice—write as if only
sweet, loving, kind, and understanding
people are listening. Be your own best
inner listener.
• Play with words.
Your Voice, Your Self:
The Freedom to Create
“Creating is the act of paying attention to our experiences and connecting the
dots so we can learn more about ourselves and the world around us.”
—Brene Brown, Rising Strong

11. On the necessity of freedom:
When you write, if it is to be any good at all, you must feel free,
free and not anxious. The only good teachers for you are those
friends who love you, who think you are interesting or very
important, or wonderfully funny; who attitude is “Tell me more.
Tell me all you can. I want to understand everything about what you feel and
know and all the changes inside and out of you. Let more come out.”
When you get down to the true self and speak from that, there is always
a metamorphosis, a transfiguration . . . write with microscopic truthfulness.
• Write to your inner child from your adult self. Offer compassion, insight,
• Write to someone, a best friend, a confidante, an older friend who will
understand. Confide and confess freely.
• Write recklessly, freewrite, experiment. Keep a journal that invites your
creativity. Play.
If You Want to Write,
by Brenda Ueland

12. Next Week
Class 2: May 11
DECIDING WHAT TO SHARE AND UNDERSTANDING THE MANY
LAYERS OF SELF-EXPRESSION
Here we’ll explore what voice is—your perspective, the lens through
which you see your story, and the point of view you express. We’ll also
talk about permission—both to share and not to share, and how to
make sure you’re creating meaning and connection in your writing.