Class Title: THE ANATOMY OF A STORY
Date and Time: Wednesday, April 17, 2024 at 7 pm via Zoom
Most would-be authors have a good sense of what a story is and can identify stories that do not work. However, when asked to explain what went wrong, they may struggle to describe clearly what they perceived intuitively. Knowledge of story structure and how to apply it to our own writing is key to improving our craft and creating stories that readers find satisfying. In this course, I will explain why story structure matters and provide a practical analysis of the three-act story structure so common in Hollywood films and best-selling novels. Understanding story structure is more than simply having a beginning, a middle, and an end. Story structure gives us the tools to organize, analyze, and revise our stories to produce the maximum emotional impact on the reader.
Instructor Bio: J.W. Elliot is a professional historian and award-winning and bestselling author of fantasy, science fiction, and historical fiction. His bestselling series Archers of the Heathland has sold over 37,000 copies. Both books in The Ark Project series won the New England Book Festival for science fiction in 2021 and 2022.