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The Writing Success! Course
from The Unknown Storyteller Project
from The Unknown Storyteller Project
What makes story ‘story'’?
What’s the hidden code that makes stories work?
This course provides a clear answer to these questions. Based on the methodology outlined in my multi-award-winning book, Story and Structure: A complete guide, it covers six key story structures in detail and gives an overview of a further twelve structures identified to date.
Delve into the wonderful world of story structure. Find out how you can make your writing sing, find plot holes and fix them quicker than ever. Speed up your writing process - without losing any of the powerful intuitive, instinctive links to the writing muse.
Writers, storytellers, narratologists, literary theorists, systems theorists, political analysts, historians, narrative therapists, and story lovers ... this course is for you!
Taught online in a live online group format mainly via Zoom, Google Suite, and Nearpod, the course combines live group teaching and 1:1 coaching.
12 x 2-hour sessions and 1 x 1-hour individual coaching session per participant.
Covers every step of the writing process from inspiration to publication, publicity, representation, and marketing. Cohorts are limited to a maximum of 6 participants.
Entry is selective, based on pre-screening and interview.
Start the process here or click below ...
What’s the hidden code that makes stories work?
This course provides a clear answer to these questions. Based on the methodology outlined in my multi-award-winning book, Story and Structure: A complete guide, it covers six key story structures in detail and gives an overview of a further twelve structures identified to date.
Delve into the wonderful world of story structure. Find out how you can make your writing sing, find plot holes and fix them quicker than ever. Speed up your writing process - without losing any of the powerful intuitive, instinctive links to the writing muse.
Writers, storytellers, narratologists, literary theorists, systems theorists, political analysts, historians, narrative therapists, and story lovers ... this course is for you!
Taught online in a live online group format mainly via Zoom, Google Suite, and Nearpod, the course combines live group teaching and 1:1 coaching.
12 x 2-hour sessions and 1 x 1-hour individual coaching session per participant.
Covers every step of the writing process from inspiration to publication, publicity, representation, and marketing. Cohorts are limited to a maximum of 6 participants.
Entry is selective, based on pre-screening and interview.
Start the process here or click below ...
How to Enrol in The Unknown Storyteller
Writing Success! Course
Writing Success! Course
Delve into the wonderful world of story structure. Find out how you can make your writing sing,
find plot holes and fix them quicker than ever. Speed up your writing process -
without losing any of the powerful instinctive links
to the writing muse.
Taught online in a group format mainly via Zoom, Google Suite, and Nearpod.
Delivery is a mix of pre-recorded content and live individualised group and 1:1 coaching.
Course details will be shared on registration.
Entry is selective, based on pre-screening and interview.
Start the process here or click below ...
find plot holes and fix them quicker than ever. Speed up your writing process -
without losing any of the powerful instinctive links
to the writing muse.
Taught online in a group format mainly via Zoom, Google Suite, and Nearpod.
Delivery is a mix of pre-recorded content and live individualised group and 1:1 coaching.
Course details will be shared on registration.
Entry is selective, based on pre-screening and interview.
Start the process here or click below ...
| LEARN MORE |
The result of a 10-year research project sheds new light on story and how it works despite the fact that we've been telling stories for literally thousands of years, this course, and the methodology it is based on are your invitation to rethink your idea of the familiar stranger that is story.
While the course content is set, the delivery is open-ended - the live course is flexible and can be tailored to individual learners' needs. We use interactive platforms (Zoom, Google Suite, Nearpod) and students are invited to share work with other members. Individual and group email support is available throughout the course.
With a breathtakingly simple and yet profound handful of symbols, Conrad has created a flexible and precise system for analyzing the inner structure of stories. With this lens he lays bare the absolute essence of all the imaginable story forms, from fairy tales and quest stories to tragedies, riddles and koans. It's a powerful tool for storytellers and scholars and will change forever how you view the simple but profound act of saying “Once upon a time..”
Christopher Vogler, author of The Writer's Journey
“A scholarly and intricately detailed analysis of the writing process.”
Joan Singleton, screenwriter/producer
IPNE Book of the Year winner 2022
IPNE Informational Nonfiction Book Award winner
Storytelling World Award winner
Firebird Award winner
NAA Gold Award winner
Readers' Choice Book Awards Bronze Award Winner
IAN Book of the Year Award Finalist
Honourable Mention in the South Carolina Book Festival Awards
Shortlisted for The People's Book Prize
Christopher Vogler, author of The Writer's Journey
“A scholarly and intricately detailed analysis of the writing process.”
Joan Singleton, screenwriter/producer
IPNE Book of the Year winner 2022
IPNE Informational Nonfiction Book Award winner
Storytelling World Award winner
Firebird Award winner
NAA Gold Award winner
Readers' Choice Book Awards Bronze Award Winner
IAN Book of the Year Award Finalist
Honourable Mention in the South Carolina Book Festival Awards
Shortlisted for The People's Book Prize
Check out Leon's article 'Structure: The writer's quest' in the February 2023 issue of Writing Magazine
Learn the basics of the story structure approach first hand.
Learn how using the Transformation structure can make your writing more gripping for the reader and how using the Quest structure can give your readers breathing time without wasting words. You'll also learn how story structures connect. As you develop your ability to work with these connections, your approach to writing will become deeper and more nuanced.
Individualised exercises will help you practice these techniques so you can hone your skills and add key tools to your writing toolbox.
Learn how using the Transformation structure can make your writing more gripping for the reader and how using the Quest structure can give your readers breathing time without wasting words. You'll also learn how story structures connect. As you develop your ability to work with these connections, your approach to writing will become deeper and more nuanced.
Individualised exercises will help you practice these techniques so you can hone your skills and add key tools to your writing toolbox.
Explore the world of the trickster - and the various forms in which trickster steps can appear, focusing primarily on the Trickster structure.
Learn how to build suspense using the Revelation structure.
Then put your knowledge to work in ways which will inform and enhance your approach to writing.
Learn how to build suspense using the Revelation structure.
Then put your knowledge to work in ways which will inform and enhance your approach to writing.
Add depth to your storytelling by exploring the ways in which the world of the metaphysical and the physical intersect. The Call and Response structure will help you make your writing more compelling and the Chinese Circular Structure will help you shape your stories fractally so you can ensure a holistic approach that will give the reader what they instinctively want most in a story.
You've got a story to tell - that's the what. Now focus on the how. A story can be told in many ways. How will you tell yours?
You'll probably already be familiar with how character, action, description, emotion, and dialogue all play their parts. How do you manage transitions? At every level?
Key exercises will help you advance your skill level and build effects that support the reader's journey through the story you want to tell.
Which story structure do you want them to experience as they follow your narrative?
You'll probably already be familiar with how character, action, description, emotion, and dialogue all play their parts. How do you manage transitions? At every level?
Key exercises will help you advance your skill level and build effects that support the reader's journey through the story you want to tell.
Which story structure do you want them to experience as they follow your narrative?
There is potential in drawing your readers into the experience of the story. Stories can be left open-ended, and we'll be exploring ways of doing this both conventionally and unconventionally, implicitly and explicitly.
We'll work through exercises based on open-ended structures and approaches where relevant to your writing to build intrigue and engagement for your readers.
We'll work through exercises based on open-ended structures and approaches where relevant to your writing to build intrigue and engagement for your readers.
Explore the ways in which story structures unfold inevitably from an initial quality of step. Understanding these connections will give you a deeper, richer overarching understanding and appreciation of story structure and what makes story 'story'.
Use this knowledge to build depth to character and add sophistication to your writing, both in short-form and in long-form pieces.
Benefit from an individual coaching session specifically geared to the story structure work we've been focusing on throughout this course.
Use this knowledge to build depth to character and add sophistication to your writing, both in short-form and in long-form pieces.
Benefit from an individual coaching session specifically geared to the story structure work we've been focusing on throughout this course.
A chance to take a deeper dive into the Chinese Circular Structure and explore how it underpins the linear structures we've been working with.
Your task will be to use this approach to inform your approach to producing or editing a piece of writing.
Individual coaching sessions specifically geared to the story structure work we've been focusing on throughout this course will continue through this week.
Your task will be to use this approach to inform your approach to producing or editing a piece of writing.
Individual coaching sessions specifically geared to the story structure work we've been focusing on throughout this course will continue through this week.
Transform the musicality of your prose by using the story structure approach to inform the musical quality of the way you use language, sentence by sentence through a passage.
You will LOVE the new-found freedom and creative possibilities that you discover by working in an instinctive way with the heartbeat of story structure to wow your readers.
You will LOVE the new-found freedom and creative possibilities that you discover by working in an instinctive way with the heartbeat of story structure to wow your readers.
Explore the joy of formal poetry and deepen your appreciation of the reasons WHY forms such as the sonnet have evolved naturally and why they have persisted.
Try your hand at writing formal poetry informed by the story structure approach.
Try your hand at writing formal poetry informed by the story structure approach.
My experience of teaching has taught me to leave an open session to address any emergent topics relevant to individual students' needs and the needs of the cohort as a group, so this session is left deliberately open-ended. It is also an opportunity to look at pitching to agents, publishers, and submitting to literary journals.
Story structure is part of life, so can be traced through every stage of the writing process from inspiration to publication and promotion, including traditional publishing, self-publishing, and crowd-funded approaches. How can you use story structure to inform your approach to publishing? An individualised creative session designed for maximal practical benefit and real-world results.
Explore how you can apply a story-structure-informed approach to further development: personally, professionally, and socially. And use those experiences to inform your writing. Expand your scope, outreach, and opportunities as a writer in this individualised creative session designed specifically to address the needs of the cohort and the individual writers in the group.
Homework will be set for most sessions and participants will have the opportunity to share work in and between sessions.
If you're unable to attend a course, but would like to book a 1:1 story structure consultancy session, you can easily do so here.
If you're unable to attend a course, but would like to book a 1:1 story structure consultancy session, you can easily do so here.
What you will get after the course
Certificate of completion
Course materials for reference and personal use
Discounts and special deals on future offerings
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