Story Structure: An Essential Building Block of Your Craft (Class)

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We may be wired for story, but we often don’t understand its structure or how a story is put together.

The good news is story lives in us unconsciously. The other good news is that we can learn the components of story structure and then apply it to our creative process. Learning story structure is one of the essential building blocks of craft.

Since one of the profound purposes of stories is to allow readers to safely test out possibilities, let’s give them a great ride.

There are lots of story structure models. In this course, we’ll cover five story models, so that you can:

Have more choice in how you plan your stories.

When you understand the building blocks of story, you can have more flexibility in how plan, craft, and edit your stories.

Decide what happens next in your story with your character and plot.

Stories are told in an organic sequence, organic to story and also to your individual story. Readers may not consciously know what’s missing, but they will know when we’ve forgotten or skipped a step, and that will throw them out of the story.

Surprise the reader.

Readers want the same but different. Agents and editors too!

Gain clarity, purpose, and confidence.

Step outside yourself and your story so that you can plan better (if you plan your stories) and can edit better.

Make a personal story road map.

When you understand story arc, character change, and the external circumstances that spark that change, then you can break story structure on purpose. The old “know the rules so you can break them” adage.

In this course, we’ll cover the building blocks of story from several different perspectives, discuss why each is useful, and brainstorm how they can help you plan or edit your story.

You’ll also have an opportunity to share your story’s structure and look at your stories in a new light. This may help you make improvements or come up with new stories.

The story structures we’ll cover include:

  • The Three-Act Structure
  • The Hero’s Journey
  • The Virgin Archetypal Journey
  • The 5-Point Plot Structure
  • The Five Commandments of Storytelling

Hope to see you there with your creativity, curiosity, and plenty of ink.

SIGN UP HERE

http://www.oirwa.com/forum/outreach-international-online-workshops-registration-form/

Class listing: http://www.oirwa.com/forum/campus/#MAY

*Scroll past the first course to see this course listing.

ABOUT THE INSTRUCTOR

Award-winning novelist, Master NLP Practitioner and certified creativity coach for writers, Beth Barany teaches courses packed with useful hands-on information that you can implement right away.

Beth runs the Writer’s Fun Zone blog, for and by creative writers, where you can download her free reports on book marketing and novel writing.

She is also the author of The Writer’s Adventure Guide, Overcome Writer’s Block, and Twitter for Authors.

She takes great interest in how humans learn, create, and grow, and includes all of her students’ life experiences, including the ancestors, into the moment.

Discerning, individualized support in a group environment for the benefit of each person and of the whole is Beth’s goal in each of her workshops and courses.

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