Writing: the Art of Telling Your Unique Story

Join editor, essayist, and veteran journalist David Rutter to learn the basics of writing. Follow the memoir-style to build your story. Write what you know with passion and clarity. Beginners and novices will receive support to craft a story readers will remember. Each class delivers basics so you can let your story unfold.

Oct 2- 1 PM: THE WRITER’S PROCESS

Look inside the mind of a professional writer to see how memoir writing works; how writers think, how they build their skills. Create a world where you can write and set up a consistent writing practice. Walk away with the skills and habits you can adopt to write your own body of work.

Oct 23- 1 PM: EDIT, EDIT, EDIT

Learning to edit is a hard habit to acquire without practice. Only writers who edit themselves tenaciously have a chance to be published. (Publishers pay no heed to unedited manuscripts.) But the process of editing yourself as you write is no magical mystery. It’s a skill we can learn just as a carpenter learns. What does it mean to be tough on yourself, and make your words more important?

Nov 13- 1 PM: IS IT A BOOK? (Short stories, blogs and novels)

There is no easy path to your great memoir. But great ideas and stories are not created instantly. Once you are orderly in your writing and developed the storyline, how to decide which format to publish? Discuss different outlets to share your story with readers. We supply five great usable ideas.

For nearly 45 years, David Rutter was a writer, editor and publisher at six daily newspapers in five states, and then a featured suburban columnist for the Tribune and Sun-Times, plus a half-dozen North Shore magazines. At his core, Rutter Is a writer who’s reported from urban jungles, suburban swamps and rural quagmires. He wrote a successful World War II memoir— ”Olga’s War” —  for a family friend. That work grew into a full book, a chapter of which was turned into a documentary by PBS.

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