Do you find yourself getting excited by a story idea only to get stuck midway through?
Have you always wanted to master story structure, but found that it was typically taught by story analysts who approached it as a formula rather than an organic process?
There is magic to the process of story creation, and this process cannot be reduced to one size fits all. And while story structure is not a formula, it is an immutable paradigm that guides your audience through the journey to an inner transformation. This workshop is about trusting your inner voice. Everything you imagine belongs in your story when you distill it to its nature.
In this workshop, you will discover that story is about meaning, that your protagonist's journey happens on the inside, that plot is simply the vehicle that tracks this inner quest, and that story is not a concept, but an experience.
This workshop is for novelists, memoirists, screenwriters, TV showrunners, producers, editors, agents, publishers, and anyone else in the business of story.
Countless gifted prose stylists have passed through the doors and zoom classrooms of LA Writers' Lab in the past twenty-one years. Many of them have gone on to prolific careers as novelists, memoirists, screenwriters and television producers.
Plenty of writers are in possession of a unique voice, a prolific facility with language, and even a mesmerizing ability to create scenes, but what separates a talented prose writer from a successful one is simply this: the ability to tell a story.
In the 30-Day Outline workshop you will:
- Discover how character suggests plot.
- Explore the underpinnings of story structure.
- Develop the craft required in order to move beyond your limited idea of your story to the engine that is truly driving it.
The challenge in outlining a novel, memoir, or screenplay lies in marrying the wildness of your imagination to the rigor of story structure. There is no formula to creating an outline, but there is craft involved.In this five-week workshop, you will discover a process of connecting to the primal forces in your characters to reveal plot. Through this process, you'll discover the foundational elements that will help you to unlock the story within.
The workshop includes lecture, stream-of-consciousness writing exercises, and structure questions designed to help you build a compelling narrative. We will watch clips from popular films and review scenes from works of memoir and fiction, and I will work one-on-one with you to illustrate the principles.
Course Breakdown
Week One – Unlock the Story Within
Through a series of exercises, you will connect to your protagonist’s dilemma at the heart of the story. The dilemma is the source of the story from which all tension and conflict arise. We will explore your protagonist’s wants and needs, uncover their transformation at the climax, and discover why you are uniquely qualified to tell this story.
Week Two – Act One/Thesis
We will take a close look at the first act of your story. Through lecture, discussion, and one-on-one work, we will cover the five key stages in your protagonist’s Act One journey.
Week Three – Act Two/Antithesis
In this workshop, we will explore the four key stages that your protagonist goes through in order to create a dynamic and compelling second act that builds in meaning as it progresses.
Week Four – Act Three/Synthesis
In this workshop we will explore your protagonist's dark night of the soul, and how this event allows them to rise from the ashes of despair and reframe their relationship to their desire, thus propelling them towards their transformation.
Week Five – Integration
In this workshop we will integrate the material covered in the previous four weeks and deepen our relationship to the process of marrying the wildness of your imagination to the rigor of story structure.
About the Workshop
We meet weekly LIVE on Zoom from 1-3 pm (Pacific Time) on Thursdays, for 5 consecutive weeks. Each class is followed by a live Q&A to answer any questions that emerge.
The workshop involves lecture, writing exercises, film clips, and working one-on-one with writers to illustrate the principles.
You are not required to take the workshop live. Many writers have day jobs or commitments during class hours, or sometimes life just gets in the way, therefore all of our sessions are recorded and are available for three weeks, respectively.
Over the course of the 5-week workshop, I offer one-on-one story consultations where you can send me your three-page outline and I review it, make notes, and go over it with you in a one-hour consult to explore the most dynamic and compelling way to tell your story before you begin your first draft. There is an additional cost and a limited number of spots for this service.
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