Are you a new or aspiring writer with a non-fiction story you’re eager to tell? Are you ready to finally birth that book you have been thinking about for years?
Do you hear people say, “You oughta write a book?” Suppose you answer “yes” to any of these questions. In that case, Georgia Writers Museum (GWM) is returning its popular six-week narrative non-fiction workshop led by master writing instructor Jim Auchmutey. The annual workshop will be held on six consecutive Monday evenings (Sept. 9 through Oct. 14) beginning at 7 p.m. via Zoom.
We all know how to tell a story, yet when writing one, we often become our worst enemy. We tell readers what to think and feel.
We throw in extraneous details because we have them, and we telegraph the ending. Memorable stories do not happen in the inverted pyramid of journalism school; they unfold more like the ghost tales we told as kids.
In this six-week course, you will learn how to recapture your natural sense of 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 unforgettable characters, setting the scene and atmosphere, introducing conflict and complication, instilling theme and meaning, and establishing a voice and style. The class will also explore one of the hottest topics in modern storytelling: the line between fact and fiction, discussing whether or when a writer can take poetic liberties.
This course should be useful for anyone looking to write a book, a memoir, essays, magazine articles, journalism small or large, or better blog posts.
All levels of writers are welcome. The cost of the entire six-week workshop is only $300. Register by visiting GWM online at georgiawritersmuseum. org.
Auchmutey is a veteran journalist and author in Atlanta. His most recent book, Smokelore: A Short History of Barbecue in America, was selected as one of 10 books all Georgians should read by the Georgia Center for the Book – as was his previous book, The Class of ’65: A Student, a Divided Town, and the Long Road to Forgiveness, which also was featured on C-SPAN and a New York Times best-seller.
Auchmutey spent nearly 30 years as a reporter and editor at The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, where he was twice named the Cox newspaper chain’s Writer of the Year and won a James Beard Foundation award for his food writing.
This will be the sixth time he’s taught some version of this course for GWM, working with more than 60 writers – several of whom went on to publish their own books.