The Rhetoric of Story : learn the 7 foundations of powerful storytelling

College level instruction, based on 10 years of teaching and research, now available to Skillshare subscribers.

"Damien speaks with great clarity about a subject he really understands. His delivery is great. The ideas he delivers are fascinating." Rod Duncan, author of The Bullet Catcher's Daughter.

We live in a Golden Age of story. From blockbuster cinema and bestselling novels like Harry Potter & Hunger Games, to HBO television shows like Game of Thrones and American Gods, great storytelling is loved by billions of people worldwide. Writers who can tell great stories make huge fortunes.

Great storytelling can be learned.

The writers and creators of Star Wars, Breaking Bad or Mass Effect aren't just making things up. Today's most loved stories draw on thousands of years of storytelling techniques, from Aristotle's Catharsis, to the Monomyth of Joseph Campbell, and the Dramatica model used by many of today's highest paid screenwriters.

Based on over a decade of research, and bringing together ideas from today's most successful storytellers and story theorists, The Rhetoric of Story is an essential course for all creative writers, screenwriters and novelists.

Learn the seven foundations of powerful storytelling.

Stories are powerful. Just a few words on a page, or some flickering images on a screen, and for a handful of moments, minutes, or hours we can believe we are another person, living another life, in another world. How do stories have such a powerful, immersive effect?

Just seven core techniques provide the foundation for every great story every told. Together these seven foundations form a "rhetoric of story", that can be used to tell a powerful, immersive story in any medium, from a 5 page short story, to a 10 hour television series.

A scientific insight into story.

Stories are more than just entertainment. As psychology and neuroscience reveal the inner workings of the mind, we're learning how great stories appeal to the deepest drives of the human psyche. The Rhetoric of Story draws on the psychological insights of Freud and Jung, and leading scientific research, to reveal the 7 foundations of powerful storytelling.

Unleashing the power of story for all.

The poet and novelist Maya Angelou said, "There is no greater agony than bearing an untold story inside you." The Rhetoric of Story provides a simple, flexible toolkit to tell any story. Apply the seven foundations to your writing and produce powerful stories that audiences fall in love with.

College grade teaching at internet prices.

The Rhetoric of Story is based on courses taught at under-graduate and post-graduate college level, to students paying thousands of dollars in fees. it makes that knowledge accessible for all, at incredible value.

The 7 foundations of great storytelling, in one easy to follow course.

Ideas you will learn in The Rhetoric of Story:

• 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 characters: 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 story 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 7 foundations 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, copywriters, bloggers, marketers and more who want to utilise powerful storytelling.

Experts, influencers and business executives who want to harness the power of story in their careers.

• Course introduction
• What is a story?
• What is rhetoric?
• The rhetoric of story
• This story is over 5000 years old
• Story is how we understand change
• The small story within the big story
• Know thyself
• The formation of desire
• What is the Self becoming?
• Demeter & Persephone
• The web of relationships
• Archetypal relationships
• The sundered Self
• Achilles and Hector
• Levels of conflict
• Antagonism and fear
• Happy endings
• What are stories made of?
• What is an event?
• Stories within stories?
• What is structure?
• 3 and 5 act structure?
• Acts, sequences, scenes and beats
• Alternate structures
• Catharsis, Kairos and Emotion
• Tools for shaping emotion
• Emotion and the seven foundations of story