As a novelist or screenwriter, how do you get your ideas out of your head and onto the page? Not only that, but how do you ensure your story moves your audience, turns on a powerful structure, and artfully serves your vision?
Master storytellers John Yorke, Tim Lott and Will Storr have joined forces to form The Story Board; partnering with The Guardian to create a comprehensive teaching experience for students at all stages of their writing journey.
In this full-day, highly practical workshop, you will work with them - and their combined decades of experience in screenwriting, novel-writing and long-form journalism respectively - to form well-constructed stories that are believable, expressive and authentic.
After group discussion, John will lead you through the essentials of structure and how to unlock the universal story shape that underlies the most successful films and novels. With Will, you will learn the fundamentals of character, exploring further how the plots that John has described originate in the psychology of precisely-imagined protagonists. Then, with Tim, you will be taken through the ways in which you can transform that theory into art, hearing invaluable advice about the practice and pitfalls of the creative process, with particular reference to the novel. Finally, the workshop will come together for a final conversation and Q&A.
This is an unmissable opportunity to hear from three exceptional creative minds, as they invite you to not only examine how to build stories, but why stories appeal to the human imagination - and it is this why that will give you a new vista of possibilities, as well as the inspiration to keep going long after the workshop has ended.
Course content
How does plot work? Are all stories really the same story?
What is a character? How do you construct a compelling protagonist?
How to apply theory to practice: The working writer’s guide to character and plot
Tutor profiles
Tim lott is the author of eight novels and Penguin Modern Classic memoir The Scent of Dried Roses. He is one of the most sought-after writing teachers in the country, particularly through his personal mentoring services. His writing has been highly praised by Hilary Mantel, Alan Bennett, Sebastian Faulks, Tony Parsons and Sarah Waters, among others. His students are equally enthusiastic – read their testimonials.
John Yorke is a drama producer, author and teacher who has spent 30 years studying our insatiable appetite for stories. His long career in TV drama has given him the tools to identify the underlying shape common to all successful narratives. As former head of drama at Channel 4, controller of BBC drama production and managing director of Company Pictures, John has shaped stories that have attracted some of the biggest audiences for drama in the UK’s TV history. John is the author of Into the Woods: How Stories Work and Why We Tell Them.
Will Storr is a multi-award winning long-form journalist and best-selling author. He has written for Guardian Weekend, The New Yorker, The New York Times and The Sunday Times Magazine, among other publications. He has ghostwritten number one bestsellers for public figures and has been named New Journalist of the Year and Feature Writer of the Year, and in 2012 was presented with the Amnesty International Award. His books include The Science of Storytelling, Selfie: How the West Became Self Obsessed, which The Financial Times called ‘Electrifying’ and The Sunday Times said was ‘approaching genius’, and the critically acclaimed novel The Hunger and Howling of Killian Lone.
Details
Date: Saturday 2 May 2020
Times: Full-day course, 10am-4pm
Location: The Guardian, Kings Place, 90 York Way, London N1 9GU
Price: £139 plus £6.94 booking fee
Event capacity: 100
Complimentary lunch and refreshments included.
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