Are you a new or aspiring author with a nonfiction story you’re dying to tell? Are you ready to finally write that book you’ve been thinking about for years?
Do you hear people say, “You should write a book?” Suppose you answer “yes” to any of those questions. If so, the Georgia Writers Museum (GWM) is once again offering its popular six-week workshop on narrative nonfiction, led by master writing instructor Jim Auchmutey. The annual workshop will be held via Zoom on six consecutive Monday evenings (September 9-October 14) starting at 7 p.m.
We all know how to tell a story, but when we write, we often become our own worst enemy. We tell readers what to think and feel.
We add irrelevant details because we have them, and we predict the ending. Memorable stories don’t emerge in the inverted pyramid of journalism school; they develop more like the ghost stories we told as children.
In this six-week course, you’ll learn how to regain your natural flair for storytelling by studying examples, writing weekly, and critiquing each other’s work in a roundtable workshop.
Each week, Auchmutey will focus on a different aspect of nonfiction writing: creating memorable characters, setting the scene and atmosphere, introducing conflict and complications, conveying theme and meaning, and establishing voice and style. The course will also tackle one of the hottest topics in modern storytelling: the line between fact and fiction, and discuss if and when an author can take poetic liberties.
This course should be useful for anyone who wants to write a book, memoir, essay, magazine article, small or large-scale journalistic writing, or better blog posts.
Writers of all levels are welcome. The cost for the entire six-week workshop is just $300. Register by visiting GWM online at georgiawritersmuseum.org.
Auchmutey is a veteran journalist and author based in Atlanta. His latest book, Smokelore: A Brief History of Barbecue in America, was selected by the Georgia Center for the Book as one of the 10 books that all Georgians should read – as was his previous book, The graduating class of 1965: One student, a divided city and the long road to forgiveness, which was also shown on C-SPAN and New York Times Bestseller.
Auchmutey worked for nearly 30 years as a reporter and editor at The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, There he was twice named Cox Newspapers’ Author of the Year and won a James Beard Foundation award for his food articles.
This is the sixth time he has taught this course in some form for GWM, and he has worked with over 60 authors, some of whom have gone on to publish their own books.
