Advanced Storytelling
Push the boundaries of science communication
So, you’ve mastered the three act structure. You’re a hero with the Hero’s Journey. You’re comfortable being the protagonist and narrator. Now you might be asking; ‘what’s next?’
This is a training course for those wanting to push the boundaries of how science is done, and even redefine the genres of science writing and presenting altogether.
In it, we’ll discuss advanced story structures and shapes, experiment with character choice and point-of-view, and borrow tools from creative writing to engage audiences like never before.
This course will challenge you to not just think outside the box for how to communicate your science, but put the box in a blender, re-pulp it and mould it into something entirely new.
Workshop content
Before the training
Part 1: Storytelling Foundations
Before we meet for the workshop, you’ll be given access to our Storytelling Foundations online course. This will give you all the theory you need to use storytelling techniques in writing for the public.
By giving you this content before the workshop, you’ll have time to reflect on what you want to write, who you want to write for, and how a storytelling framework can clarify and accelerate the writing process. Giving you this content before the live session frees us up to spend the maximum possible time pushing boundaries and reimagining the world of science communication.
On the day
Part 2: Beyond the Hero’s Journey
In this part, we’ll debate the pros and cons of the Hero’s Journey narrative for science communication. We’ll look at alternative story shapes, and explore narratives from global storytelling traditions such as kishōtenketsu. By deconstructing the stories you want to tell into its building blocks, we’ll play with time and space to build your stories in the way which most makes sense for your aims and audience.
Part 4: Creative Writing for Scientists
This part is all about expanding your communications toolbox by drawing from the world of creative writing. We’ll look at framing science in scenes, experiment with ‘where’s the camera?’, and cover tone, rhythm and sensory language to make your science sing.
Part 3: Who’s Story is it Anyway?
In this part, we’ll be discussing the ethics of protagonist choice and supporting characters, and interrogating our responsibilities as honest storytellers when it comes to creating rich, compelling, flawed scientific characters. We’ll experiment with telling your story from multiple points of view and explore multi-protagonist narratives.
Part 5: F***ing S**t Up
Pardon my French. Or maybe not? In this part, I’ll challenge you to not just think outside the box for how to communicate your science, but put the box in a blender, re-pulp it and mould it into something entirely new. We’ll interrogate your science communication aims and audiences, and dream up unique and brilliant ways of reaching them.
FAQs
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This training is for people who have been working in science communication as a writer, performer or other practitioner for a number of years, and are confident with the storytelling theory covered in Storytelling Foundations.
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Six. To comfortably accommodate the highly discursive and personalised aspects of this course, numbers are kept deliberately low.
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Yes. The reason I keep the group sizes small is to allow time for each person to receive feedback from me and from the group.
Testimonials
Anna's Advanced Storytelling Course provided useful and practical information around finding new stories in your research. I particularly enjoyed the led group discussions on motivation and audience. I really recommend this course - Anna is amazing at what she does.
- Online participant, 2023
Anna's course gave me the space to ask myself the big questions of what I want to do next and why. Each part revealed new tools on how, in a creative writing context, we could go about making a sci-comm work that could capture audiences ranging from general-knowledge to academic peers. I especially recommend this course to my fellow early-stage sci-commer.
- Katherine Holmes, PhD student at Imperial College London.