By Corinne LestchThe Daily Northwestern
About 40 people listened intently Sunday to the constructive criticism offered by Carol LaChapelle, who taught them how to turn their seemingly ordinary lives into creative stories that connect with an audience.
“Every piece of writing has a subject, an audience and a purpose,” said LaChapelle, a Chicago writer and writing consultant who specializes in helping people tell their stories.
This was her second time leading “Find Your Voice: A Memoir Writing Workshop,” an expanded free four-and-a-half-hour program at Evanston Public Library, 1703 Orrington Ave.
LaChapelle focused on helping people differentiate between journal and public writing, and stressed the importance of an audience for people who write publicly rather than privately.
“If we let the audience in too early, it can lead to writer’s block,” LaChapelle said. “We want to know who we’re writing for.”
Four writing exercises were assigned throughout the seminar, each with its own prompt and topic. For some people, the free-writing exercise was a liberating contrast to one of the more structured exercises, such as a narrative piece in which people had to characterize a specific friend.
Ben Ramson, of Wilmette, attended the seminar because he felt memoir writing would be a useful way to approach his memories.
“I enjoyed the exercises because they brought up a depth of memory that I didn’t know I had,” Ramson said. “It’s easier to see the writing come together.”
Each person’s feedback and criticism made the workshop interactive. While some people wanted to leave a written history for their families, others wanted to learn how to organize their thoughts better in writing.
Evanston resident Karon Stratton, who is applying to Northwestern’s School of Continuing Studies, decided to attend the seminar when she found out that it was a free workshop.
“I want to write in my own voice,” Stratton said, prompting LaChapelle to emphasize the importance of language use.
Others came to overcome specific obstacles they encountered while trying to write on a more professional level. Cynthia Gilbert, an Evanston resident and instructor at Chicago Kayak, wanted to improve on sharing her travels in memoir form.
“How do you organize your thoughts so that you can let other people share what you experience?”asked Gilbert, who recently went on a six-week trip to the Florida Everglades.
In between writing exercises and LaChapelle’s commentary, participants interacted on a more personal level by sharing short pieces submitted by six people prior to the workshop. A few favorites that resonated included humorous accounts of a woman who went through a difficult divorce, a man who wrote in the voice of a young Catholic school boy and Gilbert’s account of her Everglades trip.
“You don’t need to have a dramatic experience to make your stories interesting,” LaChapelle said.
Laura Dudnik, head of readers’ services at the library, organized the workshop after LaChapelle approached her and expressed interest in teaching memoir writing. A waiting list was created after the workshop drew interest from about 70 people.
“Biography and autobiography has been huge in the publishing industry these past couple of years,” Dudnik said.
LaChapelle closed the seminar with ways in which people can approach memoir writing and offered strategies on how to find inspiration.
“Carry a journal everywhere, set aside time every week to write, attend literary events,” LaChapelle advised. “But I think the most important thing is that you need to have an audience waiting.”
Reach Corinne Lestch at [email protected].
