Writing Beyond the Self: Memoir, Consciousness, & Literary Voice
Writing away from convention and towards making memoir memorable.
Why do so many contemporary personal narratives sound the same? What kinds of experience, consciousness and feeling are flattened by dominant storytelling conventions – particularly those shaped by therapeutic culture, social media, and the marketable arc of trauma and redemption?
This online course explores memoir and hybrid nonfiction as practices of attention: ways of writing that move beyond familiar scripts of selfhood to discover a more formally alive and psychologically truthful voice. Drawing on contemporary memoir, experimental prose, critical theory and reflective writing practices, we will examine how ideology, memory, culture and perception shape the stories we tell about ourselves – and how writing might resist inherited narrative forms rather than reproduce them.
The course is particularly interested in writing that refuses easy resolution or self-branding; writing that can hold contradiction, ambiguity, spiritual hunger, social reality and states of uncertainty without collapsing them into cliché. Through close reading and generative exercises, participants will experiment with voice, structure, attention and narrative perspective, developing work that feels less performed and more deeply observed.
Alongside discussion of contemporary life writing, we will consider questions such as:
- What does it mean to write beyond the socially conditioned self?
- How do dominant cultural narratives shape memoir?
- Can writing function as a form of consciousness, resistance, or spiritual practice?
- How might attention alter both perception and style?
Suitable for creative writers across all forms seeking to develop a more distinctive literary voice and move beyond conventional modes of personal narrative.
5 fortnightly sessions over 10 weeks, starting 7 October 2026. No live chats. Suitable for UK & International students.
Concessions & Accessibility
To apply for a concession rate, please send relevant documentation showing your eligibility for one of our concessions to [email protected]. Conditions of eligibility are detailed here. If you have any questions or wish to be added to the waiting list of a sold-out course, please email [email protected].
What to Expect
Please check the left hand side of this page for information on how this course works in practice, under the heading ‘Course Style‘. If you’re unsure as to what any of the terms there mean, or if this course is a good fit for you, please visit our What to Expect page which includes some further information on how our courses function.
Image credit: @anniespratt
About Charlotte Northall 
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Charlotte Northall holds a BA in Art Practice from Goldsmiths, University of London, an MFA with distinction in Creative Writing from Birkbeck, University of London, and a PhD in Creative and Critical Writing exploring the relationship between addiction, capitalism, spirituality, and literary practice. She spent four years living in a Zen Buddhist monastery, an experience that continues to shape her work. Her debut book, Practicing Dying (Pilot Press, 2025), launched at the Institute of Contemporary Arts and received widespread critical acclaim. A second book, on writing, will be published this August, and she is currently working on a polyphonic novel addressing the housing crisis. Drawing on lived experience alongside philosophical and interdisciplinary inquiry, her work examines how forms of dependency – on substances, institutions, technologies and consumer culture – emerge within late-capitalist conditions. Alongside her literary work, she has worked closely with people experiencing homelessness and addiction.
"The quality of work was hugely inspirational. I learned that I can write in ways I did not think I could; it boosted my confidence and inspired me for future projects."
Into the Gaps: Folklore as a Vehicle for Poetry
Poetry of the Displaced
The Confessional Studio