Over the next three weeks, the Butler MFA Blog will explore the summer class opportunities available for summer 2015.
Story Structure with Dan Barden
Dan’s Story Structure has become a summer staple for Butler MFA students. Affectionately nicknamed “Watching TV with Dan,” the course takes a close look at story structure and explores the moves writers can use to become better storytellers.
Professor Dan Barden is a the author of two novels The Next Right Thing and John Wayne: A Novel. He loves teaching this course. He says, “It’s the one place in my life where I’m actually on the other side of the bullshit of storytelling. That is, I’m talking about storytelling as pure storytelling. This is about how you move a reader (or viewer) from moment to moment through the experience you’re giving them.”
Writers from all genres enjoy the course, and some have taken it more than once. Dan redesigns the course every year, continually evolving to push writers further. Fiction MFA student Bob Helfst took Story Structure last year. He says, “Watching TV with Dan” is not nearly as easy as it sounds. This is a class where you’ll read scripts, watch television or films, and dissect scenes, all to better understand the narrative engine of conflict. It’s demanding but rewarding, and you’ll see your writing change for the better in a big way.”
Lisa Renze-Rhodes, a nonfiction MFA student, is enrolled in the course for the second time this summer. She says, “In short, here’s the reason I love Dan’s class — In example after example, whether it’s in books, TV shows or movies, Dan is constantly helping us see where the writers ‘moved the ottoman’ into the path of a character. In other words, he has a way of clearly and distinctly pointing out the role conflict plays in story development. He takes the time to break down classics, say Casablanca, and cult classics, like Buffy the Vampire Slayer, and point specifically to a scene or dialogue and say, ‘See that right there? That’s the ottoman shove.’ I thought as I head into thesis, his class would be a great reminder of all that I’ll need to keep in mind as I finish my work with Butler.”
Details
EN501 Story Structure with Dan Barden.
T/R 6-9pm, June 9ththrough July 16th. This course is open to Butler MFA students only.
Course Description
The tools of narrative storytelling are probably as old as cave paintings and certainly as old as Greek drama. Aristotle articulated the principles that still pertain to every Hollywood blockbuster. As fiction writers and essayists and poets, our application of these principles will be tempered, but maybe not so much as we think. By studying the examples of stories, novels, and films, we will seek to understand these principles and apply them to our own work.