Map Your Memoir

A Five-Week Intensive

Turn lived experience into a story of desire, conflict, and transformation.

You’ve lived through something that shaped you. You feel the pull to write it. The challenge is structure. A memoir is not a collection of memories. It is the story of something you wanted, what stood in your way, and how you were changed.

I’ve spent decades writing and editing narrative nonfiction — as a travel journalist, a senior editor at Outside, and as the author of the memoir Into the Soul of the World: My Journey to Healing. Over time, I’ve seen that powerful memoir follows a clear arc: desire, struggle, transformation. When that arc is present, the story moves. When it isn’t, even strong writing drifts.

In this five-week intensive, I will help you map that arc in your own life.

Enrollment Options

Cohort Experience — $495

For writers who want structure and accountability.

Private Intensive — $995

Everything in the Cohort Experience, plus:

This option is for writers who want close attention and accelerated clarity.

Dates & Time

April 20 – May 18
Five consecutive Mondays.

Monday, 6:00–7:30 pm Mountain Time (MT)

5:00–6:30 pm Pacific
7:00–8:30 pm Central
8:00–9:30 pm Eastern

*All sessions are live and will be recorded for participants.

How the Course Works

We meet once a week for five weeks. Each session is 90 minutes and structured as a working lab — focused teaching, guided writing, and clear application.

Each week builds toward a concrete result:

Week 1 — The Core Desire

Every memoir begins with a longing. Something you wanted badly enough that it set your life in motion. In this first session, we’ll look closely at the deeper desire driving your story—the thing you were reaching for, even if you didn’t fully understand it at the time. By the end of the week, you’ll have named the central desire that gives your memoir its direction.

Week 2 — The Central Struggle

A story moves when something gets in the way. This week we’ll look at the struggles that shaped your path—the obstacles out in the world and the inner conflicts that made things more complicated. Often the most powerful memoir moments come from the tension between what we wanted and what life delivered. By the end of the session, you’ll see clearly where the real struggle in your story lives.

Week 3 — The Transformation

Memoir turns on change. Sometimes it arrives in a single moment. Sometimes it unfolds slowly over years. In this session we’ll explore how your experience altered you—how you see yourself, your relationships, or the world you’re living in. By the end of the week, you’ll have a clear sense of the shift that gives your story its meaning.

Week 4 — Turning Points & Structure

Once desire, struggle, and transformation are clear, the story begins to take shape. This week we’ll identify the key turning points—the moments when something changed direction. These might be decisions, confrontations, discoveries, losses, or unexpected breakthroughs. By the end of the session, you’ll have a set of anchor moments that hold your narrative together.

Week 5 — Building the Blueprint

In our final week, we’ll bring the pieces together. You’ll shape your desire, struggle, transformation, and turning points into a coherent narrative arc. We’ll look at a few ways memoir can be structured and how to choose the form that best serves your story. By the end of the course, you’ll leave with a clear blueprint you can use to begin drafting your book.

This is not passive instruction. You will write. You will make structural decisions. You will leave with a clear narrative map strong enough to support a manuscript.

What You’ll Leave With

A defined memoir premise
You’ll leave with a clear sense of what your memoir is really about. Not just the events that happened, but the deeper thread running through them. This premise becomes the organizing idea that gives the book direction.
Your central narrative question
Most powerful memoirs are driven by a question, whether the writer realizes it at first or not. We’ll identify the question at the heart of your story—the tension or uncertainty that pulls the reader through the narrative.
A clear emotional arc
You’ll trace the inner movement of the story: who you were at the beginning, what challenged you, and how the experience changed you. This emotional arc becomes the backbone of the memoir.
Major turning points mapped
Together we’ll identify the moments when things shifted—decisions, confrontations, discoveries, losses, or unexpected breakthroughs. These become the anchor scenes that carry the story forward.
A working outline
By the end of the course, you’ll have a rough but functional outline of your memoir. It won’t box you in, but it will give you a clear path forward.
A practical drafting roadmap
You’ll leave knowing where to begin and how to keep moving. Instead of circling your material, you’ll have a plan for turning your memoir map into pages.

You won’t just feel motivated. You’ll know how your book is built.

Who This Is For

Writers who know there is a real story in their life, even if they’re not yet sure how to shape it into a book.

Healers, therapists, leaders, seekers—people who have spent time reflecting on their lives and want to translate that experience into meaningful narrative.

Anyone who has walked through real change and feels the pull to write about it with honesty, depth, and craft.

You do not need a finished manuscript.
You don’t even need a clear outline yet.

What you do need is a willingness to look closely at your own life—to examine what you wanted, what challenged you, and how those experiences changed you.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

Do I need a finished manuscript to join?

No. This course is designed for writers who are at the idea stage or early in the drafting process. You might have a few pages, a handful of scenes, or simply the sense that there’s a story in your life you want to tell.

Our focus will be on structure rather than polishing prose. We’ll work on identifying the deeper arc of your memoir—the desire that drove you, the struggle you faced, and the change that followed. Once that structure is clear, the writing itself becomes much easier to sustain.

What if I have several possible stories?

That’s very common. Many writers arrive with more than one possible thread from their life—different experiences, relationships, or periods that feel important. In the first week, we’ll look closely at those possibilities and identify which desire and struggle create the strongest narrative spine. By the end of that process, you’ll have a clearer sense of which story carries the most energy and focus for a memoir.

Will I receive feedback on my writing?

Yes. In the cohort, you’ll receive guided feedback on the structure of your memoir—especially the map we develop together: your core desire, the central struggle, and the transformation at the heart of the story. The focus is less on line-editing and more on helping you see the shape and direction of your narrative.

In the Private Intensive, we’ll go further. During your one-on-one sessions, we’ll look directly at your material and talk through the structure of your story—clarifying turning points, strengthening the narrative arc, and identifying the next steps for drafting.

Is this a workshop where we critique pages?

No. This course focuses on structure rather than line-by-line critique. Instead of workshopping pages, we’ll work on the deeper architecture of your memoir—the desire driving the story, the struggle shaping it, and the transformation that gives it meaning.

Once that structure is clear, your writing has direction and momentum. Many writers find that when the underlying arc is solid, the pages begin to come much more naturally.

What if I miss a session?

Sessions will be recorded and shared with everyone in the course, so you’ll still be able to watch the teaching and follow along with the exercises. That said, live participation is encouraged. Being in the room for the conversation, questions, and shared discoveries often helps the work come alive in a different way.

Is this right for me if my story is still emotionally tender?

Memoir asks us to return to moments that mattered and look at them honestly. You don’t need perfect closure or distance from your experiences, but it helps to have enough steadiness to reflect on them with some clarity. The goal of the course is not therapy, but shaping lived experience into story. If you’re unsure whether the timing is right, feel free to reach out and we can talk it through.

Ready to Begin?

If you’re ready to stop circling your material and start shaping it into a real book, this is where we begin. Over five weeks, you’ll move from scattered memories and ideas toward a clear narrative map that shows you what story you’re telling and how to tell it.

This course is designed to give you structure, momentum, and a way forward. By the end, you’ll have a working blueprint for your memoir and the confidence to begin drafting.

*Enrollment is limited to keep the group focused and engaged and to allow space for real conversation and guidance.