Benefits of Teaching Memoir: Providing an antidote to loneliness

Writers join the memoir-writing classes I lead for all sorts of reasons. Some tell me they want to hone their writing skills, some hope it will improve their memory, others want to publish their work.

And so on.

None of the writers in my classes have told me they signed up for their first class hoping writing would make them feel better and get healthier, but a post in the Harvard Health Blog last month presents scientific data supporting the idea that writing about your life does exactly that. In his post, Dr. Jeremy Nobel points out the benefits of writing about life events and adds that sharing our writing with others can be energizing, life-enhancing, “ and even lifesaving in a world where loneliness — and the ill health it can lead to — has become an epidemic.” From his blog:

Picking up a pen can be a powerful intervention against loneliness. I am a strong believer in writing as a way for people who are feeling lonely and isolated to define, shape, and exchange their personal stories. Expressive writing, especially when shared, helps foster social connections. It can reduce the burden of loneliness among the many groups who are most at risk, including older adults, caregivers, those with major illnesses, those with disabilities, veterans, young adults, minority communities of all sorts, and immigrants and refugees.

That’s a lot of people.

We need more memoir-writing teachers! The publisher of Writing Out Loud has been working with my husband Mike Knezovich and me for nearly a year to produce an online masterclass for leading classes like mine,and I’ll be debuting our Beth Finke Masterclass on How to Lead Memoir-Writing classes at the 2018 National Village Gathering next week in San Diego.

I lead three weekly memoir writing classes for Village Chicago, and hundreds of leaders from similar nonprofit organizations throughout the country will be at the conference. We’re currently piloting the masterclass with Village Chicago (a memoir-writing class that started last month is led by a writer who was in one of my Village Chicago classes before). During next week’s presentation I may share some of the things I’ve been learning mentoring the new teacher.

Dianne Campbell, Founding Executive Director of Village Chicago, summed it all up in a story published in Classic Chicago Magazine today: “It’s exciting to know that Beth’s work in Chicago can be scaled to seed her winning memoir class model in communities across the country.” I hope so — wish me luck!

Want to be on the “first to know” list once the Beth Finke Masterclass on How to Lead Memoir-Writing classes is released? Send me a message through my website.