Your Instructor
BA(hons) / MA / PGCHE
Member of the Higher Education Academy, UK
"I believe that all writers should have access to great teaching to grow their practice."Damien is the founder of The Writing Practice. His early career was dedicated to developing literacy, reading and writing in some of the UK's poorest communities. He was formerly the director of creative writing at the University of Leicester, and today teaches writing workshops around the world. His academic work on writing and creativity has been published by both Oxford and Cambridge University Press. He is a columnist for The Guardian and has bylines for The Independent, BBC, Wired, Buzzfeed, Aeon magazine and elsewhere. He is a graduate of the Clarion writers workshop at UC San Diego.
What is the secret super power of story?
Why do some books get read by millions of people, while others end up in the bargain bin? Why are some films remembered for decades, while others are hard to remember the next day? HINT: It's about the story, stupid!
We spend BILLIONS every year on entertainment. The film-makers, game designers, screenwriters, novelists and playwrights who make fortunes in the industry all know one big secret...
How to tell a GREAT STORY.
Everybody loves a great story. EVERYBODY. And do you want to know something really incredible? The stories we once told, sat around the tribal campfire, ten-thousand years ago, about gods and heroes...we still remember those stories today! Everything else is lost and forgotten, but great stories live forever.
Today stories are EVERYWHERE. Superheroes fill our cinema screens, and binge watching the latest HBO boxset is modern day ritual. Switch on the news - stories. Flick through advertisements - stories. Argue about politics - stories. Our world is made of stories.
Those who can tell a great story have great power.
Humankind's greatest scientists, philosophers and thinkers have tried to answer the question - what makes a story great? From the ideas of Aristotle in his Poetics, to The Hero With A Thousand Faces by Joseph Campbell, today's storytellers can draw on great wisdom. But where to begin?
My name is Damien Walter. I tell stories. I'm a writer and also a teacher. 20 years ago I set out to understand what makes a story great. Along the way I've studied every great book, film, play and story I could, from Balinese shadow theatre and Indian epics, to The Godfather and Star Wars. I've read every great thinker, and studied the world history of story.
Now I want to share what I have learned with you.
In a series of 7 talks, recorded at locations in the English woodlands of Robin Hood, the French Loire Valley of Arthurian myth, and the world's oldest theatre in Sicily, I introduce the 7 foundations of great storytelling that together form:
The Rhetoric of Story.
Drawing on Aristotle, Campbell, McKee and other great story thinkers, on the practical wisdom of storytellers from Alfred Hitchcock to George Lucas, and on a canon of great movies, novels, myths, legends and folktales, the Rhetoric of Story lays out in, simple terms, a way of understanding story so clear and concise that anybody can learn it.
The 7 foundations of great storytelling, in one easy to follow course.
You will learn:
Why no story can be great without a profound INTERNAL change.
A psychological insight into self, the engine of story.
The key to creating truly human charaters: the web of relationship.
Conflict, why it must be present, and the 3 levels it must cross.
The "fractal" pattern of events, stories within stories.
Why it's OK to steal structure...in fact it should be compulsory.
How to harness the secret super power of story: Emotion.
Who is this course for?
Anyone who wants to write a book, short story or screenplay and wants to learn the secrets of telling a compelling story.
Writers who have many stories under their belt, but struggle to find an audience for their work.
Creative professionals - journalists, copy writers, bloggers, marketers and more who want to utilise powerful storytelling.
Experts and business executives who want to harness the power of story in their careers.
Courses Included with Purchase
Original Price: $7