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It's time to write a better story
2021 Video
Your Creativity Guides
Sabrina Lloyd
Sabrina is a mother, an artist, a writer, a storyteller, and an award-winning actress. In her film and television career she has worked with such Hollywood greats as Aaron Sorkin, Patrick Swayze, William H. Macy, Gabriel Byrne, Hal Hartley and starred in such shows and films as Sports Night, Sliders, Numbers, Father Hood and The Girl From Monday.
Sabrina took a break from acting to study Creative Writing at Columbia University in NY and received a degree in English Literature from The University of London. Throughout her studies she moved around the world, living in Uganda, Rome and Kenya, ending up on an island in the Salish Sea. She documents her adventures at her popular blog, Red Dirt Lattes.
Sabrina’s life has been immersed in story. First as an artist telling other people’s story, and now as an artist telling her own. She is working on a collection of short stories while gearing up to begin her Masters in Writing and is very excited to share this journey of ‘story’ with others.
Joel Mckerrow
Joel doesn't just teach though, he is constantly pushing his own creativity further. As a performance poet he has toured extensively across Australia, USA, Europe, the UK and New Zealand with some of the giants of the performance poetry genre. Through this he is recognised as one of Australia’s most successful, internationally touring, performance poets. He has numerous literary publications as well as spoken word albums and is Co-host of the successful podcast The Deep Place: On Creativity and Spirituality.
Joel comes to you with over a decade experience in both the education and creative arts sectors. Within colleges, schools, conferences, festivals & organisations throughout the world he has taught about creativity and the creative process to over 40,000 people. His teaching focuses on the intersection of creativity identity/spiritual formation and social justice.
Formally Joel has a Bachelor Arts (Psych), a Bachelor of Theology, a Master of Arts (Vocational Practice) and Certificate IV in Training and Assessment. These qualifications, alongside years of teaching experience ensure you'll gain access to the insights of not only a creative professional, but a lifetime educator.
At the heart of this module...
STORY sits at the very heart of who we are as human beings. For we are both telling stories and being shaped by stories everyday. Indeed, at the very essence of who we are, at the level of identity, we are Narratively Constructed. For many of us, we have been living out a story that is too small. This is why we love stories after all, why we pour over books, are glued to our TV screens, go to the movies, watch countless hours of youtube videos...because stories speak to us of the larger things, the important things.
So, whether you are a professional story-telling novelist, film-maker, performance poet, social justice advocate, short-story enthusiast, or if you simply tell stories in your instagram posts or within your paintings or your choreography, this course is for you. Whatever your creative outlet, whatever your skill level, whatever your experience, if you want to learn to tell better stories, this course is for you
The heart of this module is that you might delve into your identity as a story-teller and so discover the best way that you can tell your own stories and the stories that are flying around in your imagination just waiting to be released.
The goal of this module is for you to become the most authentic and impacting story-teller (through your own creative medium) that you can be. Joel and Sabrina will be guiding you into the world of story-telling, using a number of different narrative frameworks and structures, as well as their own experience, to help you both write better stories and also live better stories. By the end of this course you will be able to come away confident in your ability to craft a dynamic and powerful narrative (fiction or non-fiction) that will be able to move people and influence culture.
“I’m writing my story so that others might see fragments of themselves.”
~ Lena Waithe ~
Module Details...
THE ART OF CRAFTING STORY lies in the intersection of two things...
In regards to your own stories you will learn how to find them, name them, articulate them and communicate them in a way that both draws people in, keeps them engaged and changes them through their encounter with your story.
The stories
of your life
(Narrative Non-Fiction).
In regards to the stories of your imagination you will learn how to find their heartbeat, structure their narrative, develop their characters, narrate their happenings and create the world in which it all occurs.
The stories
of your Imagination
(Narrative Fiction).
The module though is not just about technical skill. Any delving into the depths of personal story and imaginative story will inevitably bring us into a place of self-discovery. You will come face-to-face with yourself in this course. You will be encouraged to go INTO your stories (both the biographical and the fiction), to not back away from them because they are uncomfortable, but to sit in their tension and create out of it. All this to say, you will learn YOURSELF in this module.
You will also learn OURSELF in this module. As in, you will learn how story may impact and influence the culture and society around us. We don't just tell stories to entertain, we tell them because they shape our collective reality. This not about Story-selling (ie. using story as a formula to sell a product), this is about story-telling that will inspire and resonate within your audience and ultimately change their outlook on life. Stories that advocate for the things that matter. Stories that inspire. Stories that bring hope. Its all here.
What are the stories that you want to tell?
What are the stories bubbling up within you?
How would you begin to tell these stories?
How would you develop these stories?
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Learn a range of narrative non-fiction story-telling tools and techniques.
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Learn a range of narrative fiction story-telling tools and techniques.
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Learn a range of narrative structures to shape your stories around.
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Be led into the wellspring of your own stories.
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Be shown how to develop themes, plot, characters, scenes, dialogue, narration and more.
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Be invited to be brave in your self-discovery.
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Be invited to explore the different layers of our story-telling.
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Be shown how to use STORY to inspire and bring about change in people.
During this module, you will...
What People are Saying
"You simply won't be able to stop thinking about writing, about creating in all forms really
ever again...This masterpiece of a writing course felt like receiving a permission slip " - Franzi.
How Does it Work?
The module is made up of 20 LESSONS and is part of THE SCHOOL FOR CREATIVE DEVELOPMENT. You sign up for this individual Module. Registrations will open second half of 2023.
Each session you will receive:
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A 20-25min video lesson from Joel McKerrow and Sabrina Lloyd: These are the main teaching components of the course where your instructors will teach you directly from their wealth of knowledge and experience as writers and performers.
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Creative Homework: This will be your chance to take each days teaching and make it a reality through different writing and creative assignments that your instructors will be assigning you each weekday. This is where the rubber hits the road.
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A Reflective Workbook: This workbook is downloadable fill-in forms to help you better reflect, plan your stories and organise your creative work. These are for completing in your own time.
As with any course, if you do the activities and the worksheets you will maximise your experience, but of course your level of engagement is up to you. The expected time to take the course is about 30 minutes per session (note: this is not taking into account the worksheets and your level of engagement with the Learning Community).
The module is set up as a Learning Community. There will be a space within the learning environment where you will be able to connect with others, share your creativity, provide feedback and support each other through this course as we do this together.