Courses

Get Your Book Done! 

Like many of us who KNOW we have lived through an experience that simply must be written, you’ve probably gotten stuck somewhere along the writing path. Most of us who long to write our memoirs do a lot of PAINFUL stopping and starting.

Are you ready to get your book done?

The Narrative Project 9-month Get Your Book Done! program will give you EVERYTHING YOU NEED to complete the first draft of your memoir, and prepare you for developmental edits

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Deep Dives

We offer a variety of 4- and 6-week programs that will give you EVERYTHING YOU NEED to get you on your writing path!

Please check back often to see what new courses are being offered.

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12:00 p.m.
March 31, April 14,
April 28, May 12

Wrangling Word(s)

$297.00

Are you using Microsoft Word as the powerful word processor it is, or are you just treating it more like a digital typewriter? Do you have a system in place to track critiques you’re giving and receiving in your critique group? Do you know how to make comments? Delete comments? Accept or reject changes in your document?

You’ve made the commitment to write your book. Let’s make sure all the tools are in place so you don’t waste time on things that SHOULD take a matter of seconds.

In this four-class course from Silent Sidekick, we’ll get you prepped for critiques. Getting your files to your cohort and back again requires some setup and understanding of file management. Once you have file management in place, we’ll make sure you know how to track changes and add comments to critique pieces. We’ll also talk about what to do about comments when they are returned to you.

Finally, we’ll go over setting up styles in your document so as your word count grows, you can navigate around your larger document with ease.

Testimonials from students

“Cami’s keen instructions, insights, gentle guidance and authentic caring for my writing woke my writer up! I have more enthusiasm for my writing now and more knowledge with which to approach my projects. I am more confident and joyous in my writing thanks to Cami!” —JJ Joshua, Intuitive Coach and Self-help Author
“I was #1 in Russian Travel and I’ve won the Moritz Thomsen Peace Corps Experience Award for 2014! I even had the chance to do a book reading at the Kazakh Embassy in DC. My book journey is going well and Cami made that happen.” —Janet Givens, author of At Home on the Kazakh Steppe: A Peace Corps Memoir
“When I hired Cami as a developmental editor for my memoir, my manuscript felt like a massive ball of tangled yarn. With her years of experience as a therapist, Cami has a keen eye for identifying themes, motivations, and resolutions, which allowed her to masterfully pull the threads of my story out of the mess. She laid them across the arc of my book with precision. Cami helped me to produce the book I truly wanted to write.” —Colleen Haggerty, author of A Leg to Stand On
“Cami is a talented writer with a special devotion to bringing out the best in other people’s work. I contributed an essay to her book, Beyond Belief, and communicated with her on developmental edits for my piece. Her direction and notes were so valuable to bringing my storytelling to greater heights, and I am impressed at the level of care and detail she showed for each of her many contributors. I highly recommend working with Cami, and I recommend her books too!” —Erin Seaward-Hiatt, contributing author in Beyond Belief
“If it had not been for finding Cami and the Narrative Project, I would still be limping through a terrible first draft, picking at line edits. Instead, in two and a half years I have transformed the narrative of the memoir I have been dinking away at for decades. The Narrative Project has provided me with more tools than I even knew I needed. Instead of dreading the writing that goes nowhere, I am enjoying the ride, creating new possibilities and diving in to discover more ways to share with the words that are just right.” —Lora Hein
“I started with half a dozen personal essays. After eighteen months of hard work along with the smart feedback, keen eyes, and pertinent, invaluable critique from this program’s leaders and members, I finally had the first draft of my memoir!” —Renee DeMont
“I participated in the first Narrative Project program in October of 2016 after returning from a three-week solo backpack trip in California’s Sierra Nevada Mountains with the specific intention of using that trip as the basis for a memoir I hoped to write. I had absolutely no idea how to start this project, but by the end of the program, I had a structure within which to write and a full  140,000-word rough draft! I can say with certainty that I would not be where I am with my memoir were it not for this well-structured and accountability-based phenomenal program.”
—Kathie Tupper
“After I suffered a traumatic brain injury, I wanted to explore the experience in a memoir. I started working with Cami Ostman in her nine-month Narrative Project course, and I followed up with her Next Chapter course the following year. I wrote somewhat slowly because of my injuries, but Cami supported my work, offered numerous suggestions for getting through the draft, and gave me many tools to understand what I was trying to express and how to do it. If you have a story to tell but have not been able to get yourself started, I cannot recommend highly enough the Narrative Project program as a way to push yourself, as well as create the best possible version of your story.”
—Sean Dwyer
The Narrative Project gave me everything I needed to shape mountains of research into the book I envisioned. More importantly, I have made lifelong friends and we have continued to support each other as we bring our stories into the world.
—Anne
Dabbling for over twenty years at writing the stories of my life with my husband and four children in Africa and Asia, I realized I did not know what I was doing when it came to writing my memoir. I attended one of Cami’s free writing workshops and committed my time and energy to her nine-month program. Cami Ostman and my critique group helped me find the threads that pulled my stories together and see myself as a writer. 
—Tori
On a chilly September day in 2018, I entered Third Place Books in Lake Forest Park to attend a free one-day seminar held by Cami Ostman. Having never attended a writing workshop, I had preconceived notions that I would write. While I didn’t write that day, the kindling within my soul was sparked and my desire to write my story ceased being a dream and began to be a reality. I joined the 9-month program and went from 0 words on the page to over 70,000. I learned about the writing process, themes, and gained new confidence in my ability to write. The best is yet to come!
—KristiLyn
In my 18 months with the Narrative Project, I have learned that a writer doesn’t write alone. TNP fosters a community of value beyond payment or description. The support is that of a healthy family, and the critique is that of an inspiring Masters program. The Narrative Project has provided me with an all-inclusive roadmap for how to live my dream as a published writer, and the confidence to get my butt in the chair. —Anni

TNP 9-Month Program

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