SIX WEEKS · LIVE · FIRST-TIME WRITERS 

You've been meaning to write this for years.

In six weeks, you'll finally have key scenes written and your first draft underway

Six weeks, live, on Wednesday evenings, with a dedicated week for implementation and one-on-one coaching. For people who've never written a book and have one in them anyway.

 

The next experience begins September 23
YES, THIS IS ME →

WHAT YOU REALLY WANT (AND HAVEN'T BEEN GETTING)

You don't need more time. You need to finally tell the story waiting inside you.

01

To Finally Begin

You have been telling yourself you will start when things settle down. They have not settled down in eleven years. What you actually want is permission to begin before you feel ready and someone to show you where to start and then stay with you while you write your first words.

02

To Be Taken Seriously

You want to hand someone a page and have them actually read it. Take it seriously, offer empathy, and give you honest feedback, with kindness.

03

To Tell Your Story Before It's Too Late

Most of us won't say it out loud, but there's a fear sitting underneath the delay: if you don't start now, this story goes with you. That's not morbid—it's honest. And it's probably why you're still reading.

YES, THIS IS MY NEXT STEP

I know where you are right now.

You have bought the courses. You joined a writing group that met on Tuesdays until it stopped meeting. Somewhere on your computer is a document with forty pages of everything that happened, in order, starting the year you were born, and you cannot bring yourself to open it. You are not short on story. You are short on a way in.

So you keep doing most things the way you have always done them.

So the notebook stays in the drawer. When someone asks what you are working on, you say you are still figuring it out, and you change the subject. Another year goes by, and the story is still only yours, still waiting for a version of you with more time and more nerve than the one sitting here right now.

IMAGINE SIX WEEKS FROM NOW 

What if you could…

01

Know Exactly What Your Story Is About

By the end of week one you'll have four sentences written down: your premise, the theme underneath it, why you're telling it, and who you're telling it to. Four sentences. That's the foundation, and almost nobody who starts a memoir has it.

02

See Your Whole Life on One Page

You'll map the moments that shaped how you think, then narrow them down to the five to eight scenes that belong in this particular book. The rest goes in a different book, or no book at all. Either way it stops taking up room in your head.

 

03

Write Scenes People Can Feel

You'll go back into a memory at the age you were when it happened and write it in present tense, as though it's happening now. It's a technique, not a talent, and it's learnable. You'll write three to five of them and read at least one out loud.

04

Leave With a Map, Not a Maybe

Your scenes get mapped along a story arc with the gaps marked, and you'll write at least one of the transitions that carries a reader from one scene into the next. When week six ends, you won't be guessing.

 

YES, I WANT THIS →
Introducing...

Start Your Memoir

A Scene-by-Scene Approach to Writing Your First Draft

Start Your Memoir is a six-week writing experience for people who have a story they have never told and no idea where the first page goes. Five of the six weeks are live on Wednesday evenings; the sixth is an implementation and individual coaching week. You will decide what your memoir is actually about, map the turning points of your life, write the scenes that matter most, and learn how those scenes connect into something a reader can feel. This is not a course about editing or publishing. It is about getting started, with a guide who has written her own memoir and a small group doing the same work beside you.

It's waited long enough. Six weeks from now, your "someday when" will be "I'm writing it now."
ENROLL NOW →

You don't have to be a seasoned writer to tell your own story.

You do not need training, an outline, or confidence. You need six weeks and a willingness to tell the truth.

  • Write your premise, theme, why, and reader in four sentences

  •  Build a life timeline and mark the turning points

  •  Narrow your pivotal memories down to five to eight core scenes

  •  Learn to write in first-person present tense

  •  Write three to five scenes

  •  Read one out loud to people who won't flinch

  • Map your scenes along a story arc

  • Write the transition that connects two of them

  • Build a writing rhythm that survives week seven

WHAT'S ACTUALLY INSIDE

Four milestones. Six weeks.
One transformation.

01
Step One

The key decisions

Before you write anything, you make four decisions. What this story is, in one sentence. What it means beyond you. Why you're telling it. And who you're telling it to. They're a working hypothesis, not a contract, and they're allowed to shift once your timeline starts turning up things you'd forgotten.

  • Write your premise, theme, why, and reader in four sentences
  • Name the universal thing your specific story is carrying
02
Step Two

Life timeline and key scenes

You'll map the moments that shaped your beliefs and the way you move through the world. Then you'll hold them up against your premise and narrow to the five to eight core scenes that belong in this book. Not every important moment belongs here. That's the part that takes the pressure off.

  • Build your life timeline
  • Choose five to eight core scenes and add them to your Scene Sheet
03
Step Three

Writing and sharing scenes

This is the heart of it. You'll go back into a memory at the age you were, use all five senses, and write in present tense so the reader is standing in it with you. Each scene works like a small memoir on its own, which means learning to write one properly teaches you the essentials of the craft. Then you read one to the group and find out it landed.

  • Write three to five scenes over the six weeks
  • Share at least one out loud and get real feedback on it
04
Step Four

From scenes to a story arc

Scenes on their own are pieces. An arc is what makes them a book. You'll choose the structure that fits your story, slot your scenes into it, find the gaps between them, and write one of the transitions that carries a reader across.

  • Map your scenes along a story arc
  • Write at least one transition moment

JOIN NOW 

Six live weeks. One small room.
Your first real pages.

Start Your Memoir runs live for six weeks, Wednesday evenings from 6:00 to 7:30 pm Central, beginning September 23. You get every live session, the full framework, feedback on your writing, and a small group of fellow writers doing exactly what you are doing. Replays are posted if you have to miss a week.

Start Your Memoir

Founding Round Rate

$497 $297 Save $200

One-time payment

  • Five live 90-minute sessions on Wednesday evenings, with teaching, writing time, and real conversation, so you're writing alongside somebody instead of watching a video of her
  • One implementation week to work independently on your scenes and prepare one to share with the group
  • One individual coaching session to discuss your memoir, share your work, and ask any questions you have about your writing
  • The Four Key Decisions framework so you know what your memoir is about before you write a single scene
  • The Life Timeline and Scene Sheet that turn seventy years into five to eight scenes you can actually see, which is where the overwhelm stops
  • Three to five scenes written by the end of six weeks, with personal feedback from a writer of forty years who's been all the way through this herself
  • A room capped at 12 so your pages get read out loud and heard, week after week
  • Live scene-sharing in a confidential space where nobody flinches, because that's the only kind of room where courage gets built
  • Your mapped story arc with at least one written transition, so you leave knowing exactly what to write next
  • Replays of every session, yours to keep, for the weeks when life does what life does
  • BonusThe Fear List Session so what your family might think stops being the reason the notebook stays in the drawer
  • BonusThe Writing Rhythm Starter, a simple weekly structure for the week the live sessions end, which is exactly when most memoirs quietly stop

Total Value: $1,297

Everything above, yours today for $297

The next experience begins Wednesday,
September 23 at 6:00 pm Central

JOIN NOW

BONUSES

You will also unlock these intentional extras... thoughtfully curated to support your journey.

 The Fear List Session 

A short workshop on what to do about Aunt Mary. You will name the specific fears keeping you from writing honestly and leave with a practical way through each one before those fears stall your draft in week three.

 The Writing Rhythm Starter 

A simple weekly structure for the writing you do after the program ends. You will use this the week the live sessions stop, which is exactly when most memoirs quietly stop too.

And about that price...

You have already spent money on this. A course you finished a third of. A workshop that felt wonderful for a weekend. A writing group that met until people stopped showing up. None of those were bad. They just left you alone with the hardest part, which is knowing where to begin and having a reason to keep going when the material gets heavy.

Six weeks of live guidance costs less than most of what is sitting unfinished in your downloads folder. The difference is that this one has a person in the room who notices when you go quiet.

What you won't get here

This is not a video library you watch alone at midnight. What you will get here is five live evenings of teaching and discussion with fellow writers in a safe space and honest, constructive feedback from a writing coach who knows the life-changing power of finally telling your story.

MEET YOUR GUIDE

Hi, I'm Marian

Marian Liautaud

I know what it's like to carry a story you're not sure you're allowed to tell.

I've been a writer and editor for more than 40 years, and I've spent a lot of it helping people tell about their lives. Somewhere in there I fell in love with one particular part of the work. Not what happened to somebody, but what they made of it afterward.
I also spent years in narrative trauma work, trying to understand how things that happened to me early on shaped who I turned into. That work happened in rooms where other people were saying their hardest things out loud too. It taught me how to hold a room like that, which turns out to be most of this job.
Then I wrote my own memoir and made nearly every mistake I now help people avoid. I polished sentences nobody was ever going to read. I let the question of what my family would think stall me for more years than I like to admit.
Now I help first-time writers get started. I ask a lot of questions, because you'll arrive somewhere better on your own than anywhere I could point you. Bearing witness to somebody's story is the quiet work of my life. I'd be glad to do it for yours.

YES, I WANT THIS TOO →

HERE’S WHY YOU WON'T REGRET THIS.

Short enough to finish. Long enough to matter.

  • You will see this one through. Six weeks is short enough to hold your attention and long enough to produce real pages.
  • The guessing stops in week two, when your timeline tells you which memories belong in this book
  •  Nobody in that room thinks writing about your own life is easy. They're all doing it at the same time you are.
START WRITING MY MEMOIR →

Q&A

The questions people ask before they join

Ready to Stop Saying Someday?

You've carried this long enough. Six weeks from now, three to five scenes exist on the page, and you'll know exactly what to write next

YES, I'M IN →