Write Your Life

With Mark W. Travis & Elsha Taya Travis

Whether you’re writing fiction or nonfiction, you must understand your characters well, especially your protagonist. But when telling an autobiographical story, the protagonist is you! This is much more challenging and riskier than other forms of storytelling because the story is about you at different times in your life.

What do you remember and what are you willing to reveal?

How clear are you about who you were back then and who you are now?

What were you needing back then?

What were you missing, dreaming, obsessing, worrying about?

What were you so sure of then? And what matters to you now?

And why is it important for your story?

The Travis Technique of Autobiographical Storytelling offers incisive tips, tools and techniques to help you share your truth— scene by scene, question by question. Mining your life experiences and shaping them into compelling stories will not only help you master the art of crafting any story into a rich and emotionally engaging experience, it will also unleash your imagination and embolden you in life.

Join Mark and Elsha for a profound weekend of developing and telling the stories that live within you. Experience The Travis Technique and ignite your writing!

This workshop is ideal if…

• You’re writing your memoir or developing a solo show
• You want to use your personal story for a presentation or a sales pitch
• You write to connect the dots in your life and get clarity on what’s really going on
• You just want to be a better storyteller

Workshop Overview

• What is Story?
• What Truth to Tell?
• Good Story vs. Great Story
• Who is the Protagonist?
• The Importance of the Set Up
• Story Arc and Character Arc
• The 3 Core Questions
• The 2 Narrators: Naïve and Omniscient
• The 2 Kinds of Objectives
• The 3 Kinds of Obstacles
• Expectations, Needs and Risks
• The Committee: Ally & Nemesis
• Core Moments: Triggers and Release
• Time Expansion and Time Compression
• The Gap: Expectation vs. Result
• The Narrator / Audience Relationship
• The Travis Story Structure and Sequencing
• Dialogue, Deflection, Paltering and Subtext
• Body Language, Props and Independent Activities
• The Story Beneath the Story
• What is your story really about?
• Wild Cards and Writing Dangerously

By the end of the workshop you will…

• Know what questions to ask to get to the heart of your story
• Be able to use The Travis Technique tools, tips and shortcuts
• Identify the core moments in your story and open them up
• Recognize the subtle coding of body language, setting and props
• Use the Travis Story Structure to shape your story for the most emotional impact
• Understand the purpose of the two Narrators and know when to use them
• Deepen your understanding about what contrary forces drive the characters in your story
• Know how to build tension to lead your audience on the roller coaster ride of your story
• Discover the multiple layers in even the simplest of stories
• Trust the emotional truth of your story and let your body tell you how much to reveal
• Find the love story hidden in all your stories

“Want to write a good story? Write about what you don’t want others to know about you.

Want to write a great story? Write about what you don’t want to know about yourself.”