HOSTED by StoryStudio in Chicago

Want your readers to stay up all night to read “just one more chapter”? Do you want people to finish your book with that same excited feeling you have when you walk out of a great movie? This class distills down Hollywood story craft to help prose writers of fiction and nonfiction tell stories that make readers turn pages fast as a film reel spins (well, back before digital projection, anyway). 

After working for nearly 20 years as a producer in Los Angeles, Stephanie Storey used craft tips learned from Hollywood’s best storytellers to turn her debut novel into a runaway hit, topping bestseller lists, garnering a rave review from The New York Times, and attracting producers to turn her novel into a movie. Now, she’ll teach you those same tips to help you tell sharper, faster, and more engaging stories. 

In this workshop, attendees will 
1) learn insider storytelling lessons from screenwriting, acting, directing, editing, cinematography and more to help attendees craft better stories 
2) hear a small selection of their work (one paragraph to one page—the opening “hook”) read aloud by Stephanie, a Hollywood-trained actor, to dissect how writers might use the lessons learned in class to sharpen material and 
3) take a short bit of time to rewrite the opening hook and hear how some of those new rewrites put Hollywood lessons into practice.

This class is designed for fiction and nonfiction writers of any genre who want to tell more entertaining stories. It can help the beginning writer build a strong foundation and the professional writer take their craft to the next level. Every student will leave with at least one concrete idea of how to move his or her story forward.