This class teaches students to plot stories using eight sequence story structure. Many of the professional writers I know -- myself included -- have found this method of breaking down stories to be an invaluable tool in writing their own novels, screenplays, podcasts, and more. It's been the first thing I teach in screenwriting and creative writing classes for years now, and it's always a very popular topic.

The first half of this class will largely be a lecture. We'll talk about story structure as a concept, where it comes from, and some of the approaches to story structure that predate this one, then we'll pick apart the elements of this structure in-depth, pulling examples from pop culture to illustrate each piece.

In the back half of class, we'll use what we've learned to plot a story together, writing out a full plot for a novel or screenplay. As we'll see in the class, thirty minutes is plenty of time once you have the method down.