Stories that Heal
Classes
&
Workshops
Victoria Costello
My two current classes, When Memoir Becomes Autofiction and Intermediate Autofiction, are open for registration. Both take place online via Zoom and are administered by the national writers' organization, WritingWorkshops.
Follow the links below each course description to go to the WritingWorkshops.com website page for that class where you can register and arrange payment, either in full or with monthly amounts.
You may email me directly with any questions you may have about either class; for example, to inquire which might be the best fit for you and your current work-in-progress.
When Memoir Becomes Autofiction
A six-week class for beginning and intermediate writers who wish to explore the why's and how's of fictionalizing key events from their lives in a new work of autofiction.
This class offered next:
January 29 & June 4, 2026
Registration is open!
Writers taking this class should begin with a least a tentative idea of their subject and a first draft of minimum ten pages. They should plan on revising this draft, perhaps also their premise, based on constructive feedback received from the instructor and fellow writers.
There are a variety of practical and creative reasons for a memoirist to go the autofiction route.
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You have parents, siblings, or adult children who would be hurt, possibly never speak to you again, if you told a story involving them as straight memoir.
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You’re missing large parts of your family story and have no choice but to speculate on what happened and why.
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Your research has led you to ancestors you never knew whose voices you can’t get out of your head.
You want to write a novel featuring a version of you that doesn’t match who you are in real life.
Every class will include a brief lecture covering a single aspect of craft that applies equally to memoir and autofiction, including voice, characterization, point of view, structure, scene, setting, and dialogue. Some classes will contain a generative writing exercise, such as switching the point of view of your WIP between its main and secondary characters. Selected readings from published authors of autofiction, including the instructor, will be read and discussed.
By the end of this 6 wk. course, participants will draft, workshop, and revise a ten to fifteen-page chapter that will serve as the prototype for chapters in a longer work of autofiction. You will learn how to:
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Create a main character who begins as you but then significantly departs from you and your life.
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Put that character in a situation to tell a story that insists on being told by you.
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Create a coherent plot with a beginning, middle, and end that tests your main character and brings about significant change.
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Construct a narrator and a point of view that best serves your narrative.
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Choose a piece of this story to write as a ten-page first draft
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Balance telling and showing
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Write scenes with believable dialogue
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Revise these pages to find the deeper truth of your story.
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Workshop your story.
Have questions?
Why re-imagine your life? Hint: It's how your healing begins. Watch the video for more details.
“I got so much from this class. It was informative and so much fun! It really infused some life back into me, which was my hope."
Alison L, Los Angeles
"Thank you, Victoria. You've given me the encouragement I needed to feel like this is a worthwhile project."
Pat Stafford, NC
"You offered honest, valuable feeback along with a personal touch. Your insight and sense of humor made the workshop comfortable and rewarding. ”
Paul B. CA.
Writers say...
INTERMEDIATE AUTOFICTION:
Nail Your Protagonist
To Find Your Plot
A 12-week course for intermediate and advanced writers, next offered starting April 7, 2026.
This workshop is right for you if...
You are fictionalizing important aspects of a story about something that happened to you. That is, you’re writing a true story that would fit neatly in the memoir category if it didn’t include these departures from memory and known facts. In other words, this is a workshop for both memoirists and fiction writers using both genres in a single piece of writing.
AND
You have the bones (5 to 10 pages) of a work in progress — including a protagonist who is some version of you faced with a problem — and you need more narrative writing craft and feedback to take your story to the next level.
What is meant by the bones of a story?
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You have identified the version of you through whose eyes this story is told.
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You have narrowed down the problem or precipitating event that makes this character’s life impossible to continue as it is, or was.
Aspects your story may lack, that you will refine in this course:
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A deeper understanding of your protagonist that includes both their surface want —usually some form of getting life ‘back to normal’—and a deeper want, which underlies their new situation.
2. A plot driven by complications arising from this
mismatch and a change they must make if they’re
going to resolve the problem.
Download a full course syllabus
INTERMEDIATE AUTOFICTION is a 12-week course, limited to eight motivated writers.
This class meets via Zoom on Tuesdays, April 7, through July 14, 2026, from 6 to 8pm ET.
Students in this class meet bi-monthly (2x month).
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The first meeting in each month is with the whole class of eight writers, for a lecture and discussion.
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The second monthly meeting consists of a smaller group of four writers, for an instructor-led workshop of a chapter from each writer's work-in- progress.
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All meetings take place on Tuesdays, from 6 to 8pm ET.
Open to intermediate and advanced writers. Also open to anyone who has taken Victoria’s introductory 'When Memoir Becomes Autofiction' course.
This workshop will be useful for memoirists or creative nonfiction writers who wish to learn more fiction writing craft to apply to a memoir in progress —without fictionalization.
Applications with pages are not required for this class.
Cost: $1200. Payment can be submitted in whole or in monthly payments. Register and arrange payment at WritingWorkshops.com.
More info/register at
WritingWorkshops Questions?
Workshop Format
01
Mini-lectures on the theory and craft of narrative writing — adapted for the hybrid genre of autofiction which combines conventions and techniques drawn from both nonfiction and fictional storytelling.
02
Live interactive Q&A and discussion of these topics.
03
Small group workshops for critiquing participant pages.
04
Extensive verbal and written feedback from fellow writers and instructor on each participant’s work-in-progress.
