Own your story. Protect your truth. Amplify your voice.
A 3-part live writing series for survivors ready to put their experience into words - on their own terms.
Starts October 14 · Spots are Limited · Early bird ends September 29
You have been wanting to share your story and have been looking for the motivation, accountability, roadmap or support
You're tired of feeling like your experience is something that happened to you, and you want to find out what it feels like to be the one who tells it
You've started writing before and stopped, because you didn't know how to write about the people in the story without it blowing up your life or threatening your relationships
You want language for what happened to you that finally feels reflective of your truth - not clinical, minimized or sensationalized
You need support writing in a way that respects your boundaries and catalyzes your healing
You're not sure if you're "allowed" to call yourself a writer, and you want imposter syndrome to stop being in charge of whether you write
You want to share your story but you’re worried that it won’t have the reach, impact and amplification it deserves
This Is For You If…
By the end, you'll have a felt sense of your own voice on the page, real tools for writing about the people in your story without losing yourself in it, and a clear-eyed picture of what it actually takes to bring a survivor story into the world. This course meets you wherever you're starting: page zero or partway through a draft already. It's not a trauma processing group, and it's not an advanced craft workshop for working writers. It's the space in between, where your story and your craft get to grow up together, safely.
Early Bird Rates end on September 29th. Click ‘view options’ to see payment plans available.
*If you are in need of financial assistance, we have limited partial-scholarships available, please email us at admin@marleeliss.com - share why this course would & the financial assistance would be meaningful to you
Why Work with Fanen Chiahemen & Marlee Liss?
We're Marlee Liss and Fanen Chiahemen - two survivor-authors who wrote our own books without a roadmap. This is the course we needed.
Marlee Liss is an award-winning speaker, Registered Social Worker, somatic educator, and restorative justice advocate. Her sexual assault case set North American legal precedent. Her poetry collection Re-Humanize was self-published in 2017 and her memoir, ‘If I Had Known Then: A Memoir of Sexual Assault, Hope and My Battle to Re-Imagine Justice’, is publishing with Penguin Random House in 2027. Her work has been featured in Forbes, Huff Post, Ms. Magazine, Buzzfeed and more.
Fanen Chiahemen is the author of Never Make a Sound, a survivor and writer who knows exactly what it costs — and what it gives back — to put a story like this into the world. *Fanen send additional bio details
We've read each other's pages. We've been each other's shame-melters. Now we're teaching what we know, together.
What You’ll Walk Away With:
Three live 90-minute sessions, each built around teachings, lived and learnt experience, and guided writing exercises plus real space for questions.
Session 1: On Writing & Empowerment
Trauma-informed writing as a foundation. Moving through imposter syndrome. Writing from different parts of yourself - the poet, the healer, the raging being, the inner child. Reclaiming your voice and legitimizing your lived experience as expertise.
Session 2: On Writing & Protection
The real, complicated questions. First, relational protection: Who has a right to tell a story that involves other people? How do you write about the people who hurt you, or the ones who stood by, while avoiding crossed boundaries and relational fallout? Then, inner protection: What it means to write from self-consent and your window of tolerance. How to tell the difference between writing your truth versus holding yourself to impossible courtroom standards of accuracy.
Session 3: On Writing & Amplification
What happens when your story goes public. Traditional vs. self-publishing, whether you should have an agent, building a launch team, and how to advocate for yourself in interviews and press. The logistics of marketing strategy and the deeper aspects of managing the emotional labour of promoting something rooted in trauma, and setting real limits around how much of yourself you share, and when.
Each session includes guided writing exercises, question and answer sessions, teachings and practices to take away with you - you won't just be listening, you'll be writing, with support.
Dates & Details:
3 live sessions, 90 minutes each, held virtually:
Sessions take place from 7:00 pm - 8:30 pm ET on Wednesday October 14th, October 21st, and October 28th, 2026
Interactive sessions with opportunity for community care & connection
Recordings included if you can't make a session live
Live Question & Answer access
Early Bird Price available until September 29th: $177 USD total - option for 2-instalment plan at $88 USD per month
Standard Rate starting September 30th: $197 USD total - option for 2-instalment plan at $98 USD per month
Early Bird Rates end on September 29th. Click ‘view options’ to see payment plans available.
*If you are in need of financial assistance, we have limited partial-scholarships available, please email us at admin@marleeliss.com - share why this course would & the financial assistance would be meaningful to you
✺ Frequently asked questions ✺
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Yes! You can watch it on your own timing. This also means you can revisit modules as often as needed. You’'ll have minimum 5 years access to this course and since it’s a step-by-step structure, you’ll want to move at your own pace and revisit lessons as needed.
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Yes. This course meets you at page zero just as much as it meets you mid-draft.
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Yes. Writing your story and sharing your story are two different acts. This course honours both - you get to decide, at your own pace, which one you're doing.
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We've built this to be trauma-informed from the ground up - grounding practices, group agreements, and permission throughout to write from wherever you're actually at that day, not where you think you should be. You're never asked to share more than you're ready to.
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That's exactly what Session 2 is for. We'll walk through the real ethical, relational, and practical considerations - with tools, not just theory.
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We have created instalment options to enhance accessibility.
Additionally, a limited number of partial scholarships are available. Email us at admin@marleeliss.com and let us know why this course and financial assistance would be meaningful for you.
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No problem. You can contact us tech/logistics support throughout the course. Note: Sessions will take place over Zoom.
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We do not offer refunds.
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If you have been through something painful in life that you want to write about - this is for you. It’s okay if you don’t resonate with the language ‘survivor’. It can mean many different things. The key here is that you have lived experience you want to write about and potentially share.
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Yes, you will receive access to the recordings after each session. We encourage you to come LIVE so you can join the Q&A and interactive components but, if you can’t make a session- you can watch the playback afterward.