Mastering storycraft: full curriculum

Structure

This module examines why structure is fundamental to effective narratives, explores story models that offer lasting guidance, teaches how to present information, and applies structural principles across formats through the analysis of existing stories.

• book3-act structure
• bookNarrative arcs and the power of change
• bookScene polarities
• bookHero’s Journey
• bookSetup and Payoff
• bookMystery, suspense, dramatic irony
• bookCome late, leave early
• bookGap between expectations and result
• bookExercises in analyzing and deconstructing stories across media

Characters

This module focuses on developing rich and believable characters with clear motives, desires, and flaws, examines the role of antagonists in driving conflict, and maps character arcs to illustrate the different ways they can rise, fall, or experience both.

• bookIdentification and characterization
• bookExternal desires and internal needs
• bookTalismans
• bookInputs and Outputs
• bookAntagonists as protagonists
• bookArc mapping
• bookIronic endings

Narrative genres

This module explains what defines narrative genres and why it matters, while also exploring common tropes and encouraging experimentation with genre blending.

• bookGenre DNA
• bookConventions and obligatory scenes
• bookSuspension of disbelief
• bookTropes
• bookCross-breeding genres

Theme

This module clarifies what theme is and how it shapes a story’s meaning, and demonstrates how to weave it throughout the narrative in ways that achieve universality.

• bookEndings (and what they reveal about ourselves)
• bookControlling idea
• bookSymbolic images
• bookBroad-spectrum audience (and how to make everyone care)

Dialogues

This module examines the dynamics of dialogue with practical writing sessions that focus on mastering dialogue in context.

• bookDissonance (and why conflict matters… again!)
• bookBuilding bridges, from one line to another
• bookSubtext and punchlines
• bookMapping character voices and testing them across different situations
• bookRewriting flat exchanges into conflict-driven ones
• bookPracticing balance between dialogue, description, and silence

Style

This module introduces the building blocks of effective and engaging writing, helps writers refine accuracy, clarity, and style, and encourages experimentation.

• bookChoosing the right words
• bookSemantic stretching and co-occurrences
• bookPOVs and speech types
• bookFigures of speech
• bookShow, don’t tell
• bookPresentation of Antidote software
• bookHands-on writing exercises

Interactive storytelling

This module explores the culture and significance of non-linear storytelling, teaches how to create interactive narrative structures, and provides opportunities to experiment with the tools and platforms that bring interactive stories to life.

• bookHistory of interactive storytelling
• bookGlossary of narrative shifts
• bookVirtual reality as a storytelling medium
• bookIndustry professionals' paradigms
• bookNarrative engines, endings, themes, arcs and choices : a method for non-linear writing
• bookWriting and testing non-linear structures with Twine
• bookApplying interactive storytelling principles to games, apps, and immersive media

Personal project

Apply all the techniques you have learned in a supervised personal project.