If you had told me years ago that I would be presenting a session at one of the Writing Workshops held around the United States by Chuck Sambuchino, I wouldn’t have believed you! Yet, here I am getting ready to do just that next Saturday at the 2025 Writing Workshop of San Francisco held at the Hyatt Regency SF Airport.

My topic is Turning Fact Into Fiction: Mining the Truth to Influence Your Writing. Here is a description below.

Come join me! Visit https://writingworkshopsanfrancisco.com for details and registration.

Turning Fact Into Fiction: Mining the Truth to Influence Your Writing, taught by Lisa Montanaro

Have you dreamed of turning a personal experience or family story into a work of fiction? What does it mean to “write what you know?” Drawing from your lived experience and emotional truth can provide powerful scaffolding for a fictional story. We’ll cover internal and external methods of mining the truth, types of writing to create, how to overcome fears, when to reframe facts to best serve the story, as well as marketing, branding, privacy, and legal considerations. Lisa will touch upon examples from her own experience of using her family’s story to create her award-winning novel, Everything We Thought Was True. This session will be interactive and include questions and answers. You’ll walk away feeling more empowered to effectively capture your personal story on the page and share it with the world.