Storytelling for Writers and Screenwriters: Creating Your Own Story Step by Step from Scratch

By Emanuele M. Barboni Dalla Costa

Storytelling for Writers and Screenwriters

A guided journey towards creating compelling stories

If you have always dreamt of writing a book or a screenplay that captures the audience’s attention and leaves them eager to discover what will happen next, then “Storytelling for Writers and Screenwriters” is the treasure map for you.

Create captivating stories from beginning to end

Have you ever wondered what the secrets behind great stories are? How are they structured to trap the reader or viewer in an emotional whirlwind? This book will unveil the mysteries of the art of storytelling and guide you step by step in creating a solid foundation like bedrock on which your story can bloom into something truly engaging.

Follow narrative archetypes

The famous “hero’s journey” is one of the most powerful and effective narrative patterns. You will learn how to use this archetypal framework to construct a thrilling plot full of suspense and unexpected twists and turns. Your readers or viewers will be spellbound, their hearts racing as they delve deeper into the world you’ve created.

Bring your characters to life

Protagonists, antagonists, and even secondary characters are crucial for the success of your story. You will learn techniques to deeply and emotionally characterize each individual character, making them vibrant, jumping off the page like living beings. Your readers or viewers will fall in love with them, feeling as though they are accompanying them on their extraordinary journeys.

A book for every type of story

No matter what genre or idea underlies your story, this manual is flexible and adaptable to any narrative context. Whether you want to write a breathtaking thriller that leaves readers gasping for breath, a passionate romance that sets hearts ablaze with desire, or an epic fantasy tale that transports readers to fantastical realms beyond imagination, you will find the right tools to create an indelible masterpiece.

Finish your book or screenplay

The skeleton is the backbone on which to build an engaging narration. With “Storytelling for Writers and Screenwriters,” you will learn how to breathe life into your story, crafting a captivating journey that will leave readers or viewers yearning for more.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Arcadia Publishing
• Release date: Feb 27, 2022

Book preview

Emanuele M. Barboni Dalla Costa

Storytelling for Writers and Screenwriters: Creating Your Own Story Step by Step from Scratch

Copyright © 2022 by Emanuele M. Barboni Dalla Costa

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, scanning, or otherwise without written permission from the publisher. It is illegal to copy this book, post it to a website, or distribute it by any other means without permission.

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Contents

Introduction

Archetypes, Standard Structures, Identification, and Narrative Functions.

The structure in 3 narrative acts. What happens in each act.

Act One: From stability to the spark that ignites action.

Act Two: The real action the first adversities, challenges and rules of the new world.

Act Three: The action continues, the morality and maturation of the protagonist.

Creating characters. Classic figures and the evolution of the hero.

The Protagonist. Creation and psychological personalization.

Narrative depth. Plot and sub-plot.

Creation and customization of secondary characters and antagonists.

Acknowledgements and Conclusions.

Introduction

Welcome to this storytelling course in which I will teach you how to create and structure a story from beginning to end, following the archetypes of storytelling, the so-called hero’s journey.

If you have a book in your drawer, if you are missing some incipits or some narrative features, this is the course for you. You will learn how to create blocks to fill in order to make your story compelling and exciting, how to characterize protagonists, antagonists and secondary characters following a functional narrative scheme that has been used in many occasions, from TV series to novels and ancient literature.

We’re talking about archetypal narrative forms that can easily fit your idea, whatever it may be. When writing a story, it’s crucial to have a skeleton that will keep the narrative solid - today we’re going to learn how to do that in a way that will help you finish your book or screenplay.

This course is for anyone who wants to learn more about storytelling, the art of telling stories that excite, authenticate and connect your audience with what you are writing. Writers, screenwriters, but also people who want to learn how to be engaging with their stories, such as CEOs of a company or managers of a commercial department.

It’s a path that can come in handy for teachers, too, because if we learn to engage students with stories, learning is also more fertile