Build a memoir in 100 days or less
“The Manageable Memoir”
online writing course
Turn your life into a story worth telling—without the overwhelm.
In this 90-minute course, you’ll learn how to break your story down into 10-minute bursts of writing. Navigating by your two guiding stars (we’ll help you figure out what those are), you’ll build up a collage of perceptions and memories held together by a present-day throughline.
The key is to start small, be consistent, and understand that every moment in your life holds a story worth telling. Your life is not one story; it’s a thousand stories you can weave together however you please.
Praise for “The Manageable Memoir”
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"I love the way present ideas bring up past ideas. Can't wait to see what will evolve in the coming weeks. The course is fantastic!"
— Dan Stenabaugh, writer
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"This has comforted me very much in the thought that it brings the memoir down to something manageable, and then grows from there and builds it up gradually.. It's the intimacy of writing, having fun, being with yourself, and then going wherever you want to go."
—Philippe Trufferf, businessman
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"I love how you designed the Manageable Memoir course in small chunks, and it is helping me look at my memoir in a new light."
— Alice W. Meadows, writer
Why write a Manageable Memoir?
You feel the call to tell your story. Maybe it’s for your children, for your community—or simply for yourself to make meaning of your experiences and find clarity in your past.
You know your life matters.
But how do you shape it into something others can read and understand?
Chances are, you’ve asked yourself questions like these:
Where do I start?
What’s my story really about?
How do I make sense of everything I’ve lived through?
What if I spend years writing and still don’t finish?
Will anyone even care?
“The Manageable Memoir” is your answer.
In just 90 minutes, you’ll learn how to:
Focus on what matters most in your life story
Navigate the overwhelm by using 10-minute writing bursts
Build a meaningful structure using your two “guiding stars.”
Create a powerful sense of momentum from the very first day
Let go of uncertainty and start with confidence
By the end of this short course, you’ll already have three new pieces of writing—and a proven method to keep you going.
Your Memoir Guides
Allegra Huston
“As a former Editorial Director of the London publisher Weidenfeld & Nicolson and holder of a First Class degree in English from Oxford University, I'm all about good writing. But when I started writing myself, I wasn't able to write anything I liked! Maybe I just can't write, I thought. I was trying as hard as I could to write well.
The Imaginative Storm method was a revelation to me. I learned that trying to write well didn't help me. That my writing would be better, and my own authentic voice would emerge, if I didn't try so hard. James Navé taught me to surprise myself and write what I don't know.”
As well as Write What You Don't Know, Allegra is the author of the bestselling Love Child: A Memoir of Family Lost and Found, the novel A Stolen Summer, How to Edit and Be Edited, and How to Read for an Audience (with James Navé). She wrote and produced the award-winning short film Good Luck, Mr. Gorski, and has also written numerous feature screenplays. Her articles have appeared in many major magazines in the US, UK, and France. An editor for over three decades, she worked with authors including three Booker Prize winners, two Nobel Prize winners, and Jane Goodall.
“Allegra Huston is incapable of writing a dull sentence.”
James Navé
“I came to the Imaginative Storm method from the spoken word tradition. As a founder of the company Poetry Alive!, I memorized over 600 poems and performed them for schoolchildren. (Poetry Alive! has to date reached over 5 million students.) I've competed in the National Poetry Slam and have emceed the LEAF Festival slam for 25 years.
My focus on creativity began when I co-founded The Artist's Way Creativity Camp in partnership with Julia Cameron, author of the perennial bestselling guide to creativity The Artist's Way. The principles and prompts that make up the Imaginative Storm method are the culmination of over 30 years of practice and exploration.”
Navé holds an MFA in Poetry from Vermont College of Fine Arts. His latest book of poems, 100 Days: Poems After Cancer, was published by 3: A Taos Press in May 2023. His poetry has appeared in many publications, and he has been featured on NPR's All Things Considered and Weekend Edition.
He hosts a weekly long-form interview podcast, available on YouTube @imaginativestorm, and has served on the advisory team of LEAF Global Arts since 1995.
“James Navé and I worked together for over 20 years. His work as a poet, teacher, and facilitator is an important force for change.”
A memoir you can be proud of, in just 100 days
Your Manageable Memoir won’t be a linear, start-to-finish narrative. It will be a vivid collage of moments, insights, and emotions, tied together by your unique perspective—a memoir that expresses the truth of who you are, how you see the world, and how you’ve made meaning of your journey.
And if, later, you want to write the “big” memoir—the one you always imagined—you’ll have the confidence, the skills, and the creative structure to begin again, this time on solid ground.
You don’t need years. You don’t need to be a seasoned writer.
You just need a place to start—and a method that works.
Your story is waiting.