Signe Hammer

 

 

 

You have a story to tell, but how to tell it? Instead of starting from the outside, with an idea, we'll start from the inside, with what feels important to you.

 

 

MASTER CLASS | MEMOIR | BEGINNER–INTERMEDIATE 

TUE, FEB 20 + THR, FEB 22 | 2:30–5:50 PM | $295.00

 

You know you have a story to tell, but you're not sure how to tell it. Where does it start? What's its climax? How does it end? How can you make it exciting to read? A memoir is about one piece of your life; the challenge is how to turn that chunk into a complete narrative that's told in the most exciting way possible. Thinking about this can be paralyzing. In this workshop, you'll break out of that paralysis. Instead of working from the outside — with the concept of shaping a narrative arc — we'll work from the inside, with what feels important to you. Through a dynamic writing process with prompts, you'll find, shape and express your story by getting inside its key events — starting with your keystone event, the central event or moment that inspires you to tell your story. Writing from the inside makes personal writing pop: putting yourself into the moment puts your reader there, too. Through freewriting, you'll find and recapture the immediacy of your key events, shaping your story with rich, juicy prose that will make your memoir pop.

 

 

 

This workshop will look at how chatbots can be useful in personal nonfiction, what they can't do and how to exercise caution when using them.

 

WRITING WORKSHOP | MEMOIR 

BEGINNER–INTERMEDIATE 

FRI, FEB 23 | 9:00–11:00 AM

Chatbots have been used to write term papers, blog posts, stories, poems and books, but can they really write creatively? Can you use one to write, or help write, memoir or other personal writing or? The short answers are "no" and "yes." But you will still have to do quite a bit of work. This workshop will look at how chatbots can be useful in personal nonfiction, what they can't do and how to exercise caution when using them.

 

A chatbot operates by assimilating vast amounts of data from the internet and using algorithms, or formulas, to select or synthesize the algorithms' most predictable response to any question you pose. If you give it a sequence of words, it can return the algorithms' most plausible next sequence of words. There's a catch, though: its response may or may not be correct or even make sense. It can analyze, select, compile and synthesize, but it can't think — it doesn't know what it's doing, as a human does. Chatbots are also known to "hallucinate" — completely invent — responses.

 

The chatbot will not know anything about the specific details of your life, so you will have to provide — write — everything it needs to know, producing what amounts to a rough draft of your memoir. Given the right prompts, it can help you brainstorm ideas, research background information and organize your material in various ways, including a chapter outline.

 

The more you write for it, the more it can write, mimicking your style. But its writing will be generic; it can't figure out new ways to think and write about the events of your life, as you can. Nor can it provide nuances of tone or style: no metaphors, no irony. The question is, why would you not want to write your own memoir?

Signe Hammer's memoir, By Her Own Hand: Memoirs of a Suicide's Daughter, was a New York Times Book Review Notable Book. Her other books include Daughters and Mothers: Mothers and Daughters — a Literary Guild and Book-of-the-Month Club Alternate Selection and a German best-seller — Passionate Attachments: Fathers and Daughters in America Today, and Women: Body and Culture: Essays on the Sexuality of Women in a Changing Society.

 

Signe's feature articles and personal essays have appeared in national publications including Travel/Holiday, Harper's Bazaar, Parade, The Village Voice, Science Digest, Working Woman, Ms., Mademoiselle and The Ladies' Home Journal. Her short stories have appeared in Playgirl and in Doubleday anthologies, and her poems in Fiction, New England Review, and On Barcelona. She has been an editor at a major book publisher and a national magazine.

 

Signe taught writing to adults for 12 years as an Adjunct Associate Professor of Creative Writing at New York University, receiving an Award for Teaching Excellence. For 10 years, she taught private writing workshops in San Miguel. She taught workshops at the San Miguel Writers' Conference in both 2019 and 2020; in 2022, she taught three Zoom workshops for the San Miguel Literary Sala, including a six-hour intensive.

One strong reason for writing memoir is to find out what really happened. We want to explore a complex, perhaps painful situation and find out as much as we can about ourselves, the events, and the other people involved. Approaching memoir as a mystery to be solved enables us to approach difficult material by asking questions that reveal clues, and following those clues to discover the answers. One big discovery will be the central question, the true subject of our inquiry. Participants will leave with a clear plan for how to develop their memoirs.

 

Great writers are alchemists. With nothing but keen observation, imagination and words, they can turn any situation into literary gold. Frank McCourt conveys the misery of sodden, poverty-stricken childhood winters with such engaging rhythms that you want to have been there yourself. Alice Munro translates waiting for a train into a lively, almost musical passage. PEN/Hemingway prizewinner Teju Cole transforms a dismal Arizona immigration courtroom scene into a haunting meditation on place, belonging and the routine violence of the deportation process. Nora Ephron expands the focus on a hot pastrami sandwich to include a vivid comparison of the cultures of Los Angeles and New York City.

 

If you've ever wrestled with difficult or apparently dull material ⁠— a scene that's not scenic, a banal or awkward moment, an unpleasant incident — you know how hard it is to make it come alive. More than good description is required. The writer needs to discard cultural blinders and conventional preconceptions and see with fresh eyes. It's through the writer's eyes that the reader sees the world anew.

 

In this workshop, participants will learn to find the action in inaction, the singular in the ordinary, the particular in the general, the familiar in the strange and the humor or thread of common interest in the repellent. Each session, we'll look at the different ways that great writers have used diction, point of view, tone, figurative language, juxtaposition, contrast and other devices to make apparently unpromising situations come alive. Then we'll try it ourselves in short writing exercises. Volunteers will read their pieces aloud for guided discussion. Over the three sessions, participants will develop the tools they need to write more confidently and effectively. Bring paper and pen or writing device and an open mind.

 

Every writer needs to understand humor and how to use it, whether as the overall tone of a narrative, the spice that keeps it jumping, or to lighten difficult material. In this workshop, we'll look at the many types of humor as written by masters both classical and contemporary, and we'll come up with a set of useful tips we can apply. Then we'll try our hand at writing in different humorous styles. Participants will leave with a greater understanding of the varieties of humor and with the tools they need to use humor in their own writing.

 

How do we unlock our memories, dreams and feelings? Freewriting can be a powerful tool for liberating the treasures of the mind. Write in the moment, with evocative prompts to inspire you. Let your writing flow naturally, with no rules about how to shape it. Whatever you write is right!

 

Whether you're interested in memoir or just want to try personal writing, this Zoom workshop provides a safe space in which to explore new writing territory. In addition to prompts, short readings—including writers' reflections on opening up their own memories and feelings—will help excite, stimulate and motivate.

 

Each two-hour workshop session includes two freewriting periods. After each one, participants will have the opportunity to read their writing aloud—and to respond positively to what, in others' writing, pleases the ear or reverberates in the mind and heart. (Sharing is encouraged but never required.)

 

I respond to readings with positive reinforcement and encouragement. Workshop participation includes a 20-minute, one-on-one mentoring session with me via audio, Skype, FaceTime, WhatsApp or Zoom, on the writing subject or question of your choice.

 

Emerge from each workshop session with the beginnings or more of two solid explorations of new territory—in writing, in memory, in dreams or feelings!

No more Blursdays!

Down with doomscrolling!


Write!

Our Pod offers dedicated time each week to focus on your writing in a safe, protected space.


Write for yourself, for your nearest and dearest, for the strangers you want to reach.


Explore memoir, fiction, personal essay, blog post or poem, or just write what's in your mind and heart and see what shape it takes.


Seasoned writer or beginner, everyone writes!


 

Soothe those waiting-for-the-vaccine jitters!

Banish third-wave-lockdown déjà vu!

Write!



Prompts and short readings will help inspire new writing, or new takes on a current project.


Everyone will have the chance to read aloud (sharing is encouraged but not required), and to respond positively to what, in others' writing, pleases the ear or reverberates in the mind and heart.


Emerge from each Pod session with a solid beginning or real progress on one or more narratives or poems.


Straighten the pandemic time warp. Write!



 

Our Covid Zoom Writing Pod is a private, safe, protected space where we can explore our experiences and express our thoughts, fears and feelings about this pandemic we are all living through.

 

Our Pod offers dedicated time each week to focus on your writing. Seasoned writer or beginner, everyone writes!

 

Prompts and short readings will help inspire new writing, or new takes on a current project: "A moment when I feared things were completely out of control. A moment when I knew I could cope."

 

Write for yourself, for the people you know and love, or for the readers you hope to reach. Write memoir, fiction, personal essay, blog post or poem, or just write what's in your mind and heart and see what shape it takes.

 

Everyone will have the chance to read their writing aloud (encouraged but not required), and to respond positively to what, in others' writing, pleases the ear or reverberates in the mind and heart.

 

Emerge from each Pod session with a solid beginning or real progress on one or more narratives or poems.

 

Writing is healing,

Writing is the beginning of understanding;

Claim your voice and write!

 

Signe Hammer has taught writing workshops for 40 years, including New York University (Award for Teaching Excellence}, the San Miguel Writers Conference, the San Miguel Literary Sala Zoom workships, and private in-person and Zoom workshops. She has been an editor at both a major book publisher and a national magazine. She has published four nonfiction books, along with short stories, poetry, reviews and many national-magazine feature articles. Her memoir was a New York Times Book Review Notable Book.