Hosted by The Writers Center. Register (for free) here.

You have a story you’re burning to tell, but it is not yours alone. Other characters include family members or former family members—and whether they betrayed you, supported you, or were bystanders—they will be deeply affected by your portrayal of them on the page. Some writing teachers say, “It’s your story, and you get to tell it.” Or, “If he didn’t want you to write about what he did, he shouldn’t have done it.” Others insist that the privacy of the people in your life is an ethical priority that must be honored.

In this event, seven-time author Laura Davis (The Courage to Heal and The Burning Light of Two Stars) and Jeannine Ouellette (The Part That Burns) share their decades of experience writing about family. Both authors have outed abusers on the page, navigated subsequent estrangements and reconciliations, and written long-running columns about their children (while sometimes paying a price). Their perspectives on writing about family have changed over time, and yours might, too, after this thought-provoking workshop.

During this free event, we’ll talk about:

•  The therapeutic value (and challenges) of writing about family secrets, history, and trauma
•  The difference between personal writing and work we publish
•  How to create a safe container for writing about family, free from concerns about publication
•  How to walk the fine line between publishing things that may negatively affect family members while serving the greater world
•  Why it’s essential to face our fears and consider the worst possible outcomes
•  Why the strongest reactions—negative and positive!—sometimes come from the people you’d least expect
•  If, when, and how to inform family members about writing that involves them

FREE and open to the public
7pm Eastern/6pm Central/5pm Mountain/4pm Pacific