UntitledTown Presents: Tips for Writing Memoirs

10:00 - 10:45 am

WRITING YOUR LIFE STORY: Ever wanted to share your life story with your family? Write down those notable memories and moments you don’t want to forget? Join writer/editor Sharon Verbeten for a workshop on writing memoir—what IS it? What isn’t it? How do you start? What do you include? All it takes is putting pen to paper to start—why not now?

EDITOR, WRITER, WORD WRANGLER
For more than 30 years, Verbeten has written about everything from custom caskets and wastewater plants to medical discoveries and special needs children. She has interviewed cancer survivors, children's book authors, funeral directors, antiques collectors and corporate CEOs. She is a freelance writer and editorial director of her company All Write Creative Services and has presented on publishing and writing at Brown County Library and the Untitledt\Town Book Festival. She has authored two books for adults on Barbie and has been regularly published in dozens of national trade and consumer magazines, including American Funeral Director, School Library Journal, Insight on Business, New England Antiques Journal and more. Verbeten has served as editor of Children and Libraries, the national publication of the Association for Library Service to Children (ALSC), for the past 21 years.She is the children’s services manager at the Manitowoc Public Library and I live in De Pere.

11:00 - 11:45 am

GETTING YOUR STORY ON THE PAGE: Whether you’re a pantser or a planner, this craft workshop will help you move from having an idea for a story to transferring it to written form, whether story length or full-on novel.  Handouts and examples will walk participants through developing the fundamentals of a good story: setting, character, narrative point of view and plot.  Applicable to any fiction or memoir writing.

Attendees: Please bring a notebook and pen.

ABOUT THE PRESENTER: 
Melissa Westemeier has taught high school English and college writing classes. Her years tending bar on the Wolf River inspired her to write Across the River (2016), On the River (2018), and Through the Channel (2020). Her published chick lit includes Kicks Like a Girl (2011) and Whipped, Not Beaten (2014).  She has been a member of the Screw Iowa Writers Workshop since 2004 and has presented workshops at the Fox Cities Book Festival and UntitledTown. Her upcoming mystery series is represented by Dawn Dowdle at Blue Ridge Literary Agency.

Attend one or both sessions.

Presented by UntitledTown, a program of the Friends of Brown County Library in partnership with Brown County Library .