The Art of Storytelling

Do you want to write but need a nudge getting started? Have stories you want to tell but need help getting them down? Want to use storytelling to take your writing to the next level, give better presentations, and have better conversations? Then sign up for The Art of Storytelling, our writing/storytelling class at New York Writers’ Intensive, taught by award-winning journalist and storyteller Jay Dixit.

The Art of Storytelling is a class about how to use storytelling techniques to captivate your readers. Since the principles storytelling are universal, we’ll explore the work of brilliant storytellers in a variety of genres—from writers like Ernest Hemingway, Joan Didion, and Tina Fey to stand-up comics like Louis CK and Mike Birbiglia. We'll watch scenes from movies (The Bourne Identity, Up, Casablanca) and TV (Louie, Breaking Bad, True Detective), and we'll read pages from graphic novels like Alison Bechdel’s Fun Home.

We'll listen to stories from The Moth and This American Life and read from the journal Spike Lee kept while he was writing Do The Right Thing. And yes, we will talk about Hamilton. Through all of this, we’ll break down the principles of good storytelling—vulnerability, suspense, goal/obstacle, action/reaction, cause and effect—and you'll learn how to apply those same techniques in your own writing, whether you want to write fiction or nonfiction, stories or essays, a Moth story or a TED talk.

In this class, you will learn how to: 

• tap into your creativity, find your voice, and tell a story that moves people 
• craft a plot using the principles of story structure 
• use suspense, tension, and conflict to hook your readers 
• express yourself and your personality in an honest, authentic way that connects with people   

This class is fun and interactive, balancing classroom instruction with writing prompts and group creativity exercises to help you get unstuck and get into flow. Because the principles of storytelling are universal, the class draws on examples not only from great writers like Vladimir Nabokov, Ernest Hemingway, and Joan Didion, but also from contemporary genres, including: 

• comedians like Louis CK, Chris Rock, and Amy Schumer
• TV like Breaking Bad, The Walking Dead, and Louie
• live storytellers from The Moth, This American Life, and TED
• essays from The New York Times "Modern Love" column, and comic essayist like David Sedaris, Tina Fey, and Sloane Crosley 
• filmmakers like Alfred Hitchcock, Woody Allen, and Quentin Tarantino