A four week writing workshop for women
“All I can see is where I fell short.”
You’ve grown more than you can see.Let’s put it on the page.
A gentle, guided way to look back at one hard season of your life and finally see what was changing in you the whole time.
- Live on Zoom
- Four women per group
- October 21 – November 11, 2026
$400 per person. Limited to four women.
Chapter one
Does it feel like the hard years were wasted?
You have lived through things you did not choose. A marriage that ended. A loss you still carry. Years that went nothing like the way you planned them.
And when you look back now, a quiet voice hands you a verdict. It says you should have done better. It counts up the mistakes and calls that the whole story.
Meanwhile the people you love are growing up and growing older, and there are things you want them to know. Not the tidy version. The true one. How you got through it. What it taught you. Who you were quietly becoming while nobody was watching, including you.
You are not a verdict. You are still becoming.
Most of us were taught to read our lives in one direction only: good or bad, right or wrong, success or failure. But nothing final has been decided about you. You are in the middle of the work, and the middle is where almost all of us live.
You may have tried to write some of this down before. A journal that stayed mostly blank. A memoir class that felt like homework. This is not that.
Chapter two
What is the Sequential Writing Formula?
You take one hard thing. You answer a short set of gentle questions about it, at three different points in time. Then you set the three side by side.
That is the whole idea, and it is deceptively simple. You are not writing a memoir. You are answering questions you already know the answers to, in your own plain words.
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Phase one
When it was new
What was happening? How did you feel, and what did you do because of it? Where did you want to go from there?
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Phase two
After some time had passed
What has changed? How were you coping? What were you beginning to want instead?
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Phase three
Looking back now
What is different today? What carried you through? What do you know now that you could not have known then?
Answer in simple terms. Be specific about the feelings, because that is where the change usually shows first. And every phase closes with the same invitation, which you are free to take or leave: would you like to invite God into this part of your story?
Laid out in sequence, the three phases show you something you cannot see any other way: the change that was already happening in you. Change you lived straight through and could not name at the time.
God’s slow work in you becomes visible on the page.
“I demanded everything, I wasted everything, and now I am hungrier than the animals I feed.”
“I left a son. I came back rehearsing the words of a servant, and he interrupted me back into being a son.”
“I lost the inheritance and kept the father, and the far country was where I learned which one was the treasure.”
Same person. Same story. Three moments in time. Read together, they show a change that no single entry could have shown on its own.
Chapter three
What you’ll have when the workshop is over
- A completed set of Formula phases about one hard season of your life, written in your own words.
- A finished piece of writing drawn out of those phases, ready for your life history or to hand to your family.
- The formula itself, which you can use again on any other hard season, for the rest of your life. That is the part women tell me they did not expect.
- More kindness toward yourself, which has a way of spilling over onto the people around you as you start to see their learning too.
- Stories you can actually tell: in a talk, at a table, in a letter, in a conversation with a grandchild who needs to know you were once in the middle of something too.
Can it be healing? Yes, it often is. Mostly it is encouraging. Once you begin to see the change that was already underway, the way you look back at yourself starts to soften.
Chapter four
How the four sessions work
Four sessions. Two hours each. Live on Zoom, with no more than four women in the room. Small on purpose, so there is time for your questions and for real, personal instruction.
- Length
- 4 weeksOne 2 hour session each week
- Group size
- 4 womenOne small, supportive group
- Investment
- $400Four live sessions
Our meeting time
We meet Wednesdays from 10:00 am to 12:00 pm Mountain Time, live on Zoom, on October 21 and 28 and November 4 and 11, 2026.
You will also hear from Michele by email after the four sessions are over, as you keep going.
Chapter five
I built this because I needed it
I have taught life story writing workshops for more than twenty years. In living rooms, in classrooms, at the University of Utah’s Lifelong Learning program, and online. I have developed a lot of them.
And nothing, I mean nothing I have taught before, helps a woman see her life through new eyes the way this formula can.
I have lived a life with plenty of mistakes in it. I married at sixteen. Divorced, I raised five children. I was single for decades. I walked away from my faith for fourteen years, and I came back slowly, over about two years, because Jesus kept softly calling to me. Later I served a senior mission.
I do not look back at that woman with disapproving eyes anymore. Every one of those years turned out to be evidence of learning. I just could not see it while I was inside it.
What I want now is for you to feel God’s love for you as you learn to see yourself differently. Not as someone who made mistakes and will never measure up, but as a daughter of God who is learning and growing. His purpose is our progress. He keeps nudging us to see the good already in us.
Chapter six
This is a gentle place to write
Looking back at a hard season takes courage. So here is exactly how I hold this room.
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You choose the depth
The questions never require you to go back into the worst of it. Take your time and write what you can. A sentence is enough.
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You never have to read out loud
You are welcome to share, and many women do once they feel safe. But nothing is required of you, ever.
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What is said here stays here
Four women, one room, and a plain agreement about privacy that we make together in the first session.
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I have heard it before
I have been doing this a long time. There is not much I have not heard, and I will not push you toward anything you are not ready for.
A gentle note: this is a writing workshop, not therapy. For some seasons a good counselor is the right next step, and there is no shame at all in that. If that is where you are, please take care of yourself first. This will still be here.
Chapter seven
About Michele’s approach
I have taught life story writing for more than twenty years, including through the University of Utah’s Lifelong Learning program. My approach is gentle, guided, and grounded in the belief that every woman’s story is worth understanding.
The Sequential Writing Formula offers a clear way to look at one hard season of life from different points in time and notice the changes that may have been difficult to see while you were living through them.
Our small group gives you room to work at your own pace, ask questions, and write in your own words.
Chapter eight
Questions you might be asking
Do I need to be a writer?
No. Most of the women who come to this have never once called themselves writers. The formula is a set of gentle questions, and you answer them in your own plain words. Nobody grades anything. If you can tell me what happened, you can do this.
What if my life isn’t interesting enough?
Every woman who has said that to me was wrong, and she usually found out within the first twenty minutes. This is not about drama. It is about the ordinary years when you were quietly changing, and about giving your family the true version of you instead of the polished one.
What if it is too painful to go back there?
You choose which hardship you write about, and you choose how much detail to give it. The questions do not require you to relive the worst of it. Take your time and write what you can. I will not push you anywhere you are not ready to go.
Will I have to share what I write?
Never. You are welcome to read something aloud if you want to, and many women eventually do. But it is always your choice, and what is said in the group stays in the group.
Is this only for women of one faith?
I write and teach from my own faith in Jesus Christ, and you will hear that in the way I talk about growth. Any woman who wants to look honestly at her life is welcome here, and you will never be asked to believe anything in order to take part.
How much technology do I need?
Very little. If you can join a Zoom call, you have everything you need. I will send you a link and simple instructions, and you can write by hand in a notebook or type on a computer, whichever feels better to you.
What if I have to miss one of the four sessions?
Life happens, and I would rather you come to three sessions than none. Let me know ahead of time and I will make sure you have what you need to keep pace with the group.
Do I need to know which hard season I want to write about?
No. Come with a rough idea, or come with nothing at all. Choosing well is part of what we do in the first session, and I will help you.
What exactly do I leave with?
A completed set of Formula phases about one season of your life, at least one finished piece of writing drawn from them, and the formula itself, which is yours to use again whenever you need it.
What is your cancellation policy?
Because each group is capped at four women, your seat is held for you from the moment you enroll, and I do not offer refunds once the workshop begins. If an unforeseen emergency means you need to postpone, tell me and I will save you a seat in the next workshop.
The invitation
Come and see what has been changing in you
Four sessions. Four women. One hard season, looked at with kinder eyes and finally written down.
$400 per person
The group is capped at four women.
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Wednesdays
10:00 am to 12:00 pm Mountain Time
October 21 and 28, November 4 and 11, 2026
Save my seat
Four two-hour sessions, live on Zoom, in a small group of no more than four women.
The workshop is $400 per person. For enrollment details, please contact Michele through tellmeyourstorynow.com.
You are not finished. You are becoming.