Fiction

Summer Course Profile: “Story Structure”

Profiled by Logan Spackman, a second-year MFA student in fiction.

EN 501 Professor Dan Barden
EN 501 Professor Dan Barden

The “Story Structure” course focuses on studying the tools of narrative storytelling.  The foremost interest is examining how a tool such as conflict makes for compelling story, poetry, and drama. One of my favorite things Dan talks about in class is the engine of story, and “Story Structure” focuses on how that engine works. The aim is then to learn to recognize structure in the cultural artifacts around us (such as novels, television, film) and begin applying them to our own work.

I’ve been writing for a few years, and I felt I needed a reset in how I approached narrative. I’ve always been interested in how stories work, and I love film, so to find a class that would incorporate both elements toward the process of improving my writing was very exciting for me. Plus, I’d done a workshop with Dan and his knowledge of story was a valuable resource, so I was eager for a setting where we could discuss narrative in even greater width and depth.

An average session starts with students discussing their writing work since the previous class. In addition to the course subject, Dan stresses cultivating a professional writing process in order to succeed as a writer, so he’s always pushing us to develop an approach to our writing that’s consistent and practical. Next, we’ll discuss a story or screenplay that was assigned the last class. These discussions focus on the structural elements that make the narrative effective. We’ve gotten the opportunity to talk a lot about conflict–how it serves both the movement of a piece and its characters. The second half of class is usually devoted to watching a film or television show that displays the same principles. When we have the time, we’ll break the show down scene-by-scene, watching for all the elements of craft we’ve been discussing.

Probably my favorite class thus far was when we examined Elmore Leonard’s “Fire in the Hole” and the Graham Yost adapted TV series “Justified.” We read the story, then the script, and finally watched the pilot episode of the television show in order to study the progression the narrative took as it evolved. Through each incarnation of the story, we examined how the internal structure Leonard put in place originally was being excavated and made into something equally powerful and compelling. That process helped me recognize all of the elements to a successful story that, in my entertainment, I had been missing.

Summer Course Profile: “Story Structure”

Profiled by Logan Spackman, a second-year MFA student in fiction.

EN 501 Professor Dan Barden
EN 501 Professor Dan Barden

The “Story Structure” course focuses on studying the tools of narrative storytelling.  The foremost interest is examining how a tool such as conflict makes for compelling story, poetry, and drama. One of my favorite things Dan talks about in class is the engine of story, and “Story Structure” focuses on how that engine works. The aim is then to learn to recognize structure in the cultural artifacts around us (such as novels, television, film) and begin applying them to our own work.

I’ve been writing for a few years, and I felt I needed a reset in how I approached narrative. I’ve always been interested in how stories work, and I love film, so to find a class that would incorporate both elements toward the process of improving my writing was very exciting for me. Plus, I’d done a workshop with Dan and his knowledge of story was a valuable resource, so I was eager for a setting where we could discuss narrative in even greater width and depth.

An average session starts with students discussing their writing work since the previous class. In addition to the course subject, Dan stresses cultivating a professional writing process in order to succeed as a writer, so he’s always pushing us to develop an approach to our writing that’s consistent and practical. Next, we’ll discuss a story or screenplay that was assigned the last class. These discussions focus on the structural elements that make the narrative effective. We’ve gotten the opportunity to talk a lot about conflict–how it serves both the movement of a piece and its characters. The second half of class is usually devoted to watching a film or television show that displays the same principles. When we have the time, we’ll break the show down scene-by-scene, watching for all the elements of craft we’ve been discussing.

Probably my favorite class thus far was when we examined Elmore Leonard’s “Fire in the Hole” and the Graham Yost adapted TV series “Justified.” We read the story, then the script, and finally watched the pilot episode of the television show in order to study the progression the narrative took as it evolved. Through each incarnation of the story, we examined how the internal structure Leonard put in place originally was being excavated and made into something equally powerful and compelling. That process helped me recognize all of the elements to a successful story that, in my entertainment, I had been missing.