“Legend crafter” Francine Brevetti to lead autobiography workshop

Valerie Camarda was dumbfounded. On a friend's urging, she took the six-week workshop "Forever Remembered" to guide her in writing her life story.

The San Francisco marketing specialist says, "I really never considered myself a writer but Francine's class inspired me and helped me discover my inner writer. She guided us through the process and helped me uncover fabulous stories I could relay in my writing. Her interviewing techniques were particularly helpful. Now I’m excited about writing my family’s history."

That people have reservations about their ability to write "has been a common refrain from the workshop," observes Brevetti. That's why conquering so-called "writer’s block" is a big part of the experience she offers.
The author of the history of the Fior d'Italia Restaurant, The Fabulous Fior—Over 100 Years in an Italian Kitchen, Brevetti has been writing memoirs for individuals for several years. This past year she has introduced a six-week workshop on the restaurant's premises. She realized that under this economy many people cannot afford to have their memoirs—or the biography of a parent—written by a ghostwriter or a collaborator such as herself. "So I started this workshop for people who are motivated to do it themselves," she says.

Brevetti says the hardest thing people have to do to end up with an autobiography is to finish it.
"Many people want to write their life story and some of them actually start. Very few finish," she observes. "Actually people frequently arrive in my workshops with manuscripts they had already started but they get stuck."

In the curriculum for this six- week experience participants are instructed how to organize their project, stimulate memories of important moments in their life and convey those experiences feelingly in their manuscript. She also guides them on doing research to provide background for their narratives.
Berkeley resident Leah Joseph had been keeping journals for years. She says, "I am sure that without taking Francine’s class I would NEVER have poured over my papers. The Saturday classes were so enjoyable; you wanted to come with whatever your self-given homework was for the week."

Josephs says she benefited from guidance about writing a manuscript, interviewing people, editing one's work and choices for publishing.
Nobody leaves the six-week workshop having completed their manuscript, Brevetti says. "But if they do the homework, they can finish a draft."
The support and camaraderie experienced in these workshops has been remarkable, participants say. Even after the end of the past workshop, they want to continue meeting and supporting each other.

"Francine's class will take you to unexpected places. Put on your seatbelt and enjoy the ride," says Joanne Butcher, a San Francisco filmmaker.
The next session of "Forever Remembered" begins Saturday, September 17 from 1:45 PM to 4 PM at the Fior d'Italia Restaurant, 2237 Mason St. in San Francisco's North Beach. A six-week course, it ends on October 22. Contact Francine@Francine Brevetti.com for further information.