Narrative Modes and Elements are what stories are technically made of.

They are our building blocks.

Knowing how to use and combine them, liberates and strengthens our narratives and stories.

Imagine you had the perfect story. How would you best tell it?

The answer lies in techniques and modes of narration.

In each session,

1. Theory will be presented,
2. Excerpts of famous literature will be examined as examples to theory, 
3. Participants' work in progress will be edited.

In this cycle, we focus on the following subjects:

• Scene, Summary and Pace.
• The tool of Suspense – Cause and effect in fiction, from Aristotle to E.M. Forster and Hitchcock.
• Point of View, Tone and Voice – What is the role of narrators in stories?  What would happen to your story if it were to be told by a different narrator? Can a story be told in multiple points of view?  
• The art of dialogue – Do we always speak out what we think? Is what we say, always, what we mean? And what can dialogue reveal about fictional characters and human relationships? 
• Internal monologue, Free indirect discourse, Reflection
• To Show and Tell
• Exposition, Description, and the role of the five senses in literature and narrative.
• Setting - “in the way I want to define it – setting is not just a place where the action happens” - Charles Baxter. What can we possibly achieve with setting?
• Narrative time and tenses - can time be treated in stories as clay on a pottery wheel? Time is not necessarily linear in narrative. We can travel back and forth, we can pause and compress or accelerate time using techniques like flashback, flash-forward, slow motion as well as summaries and scenes. 
• Symbolism and Motifs 
• Beginnings 
• Middles
• Endings 
• Inspiration and Creativity - Is inspiration a state of mind? How does Creativity work?

Benefits: After having completed this workshop, you will have the tools and knowledge to build your story in the most efficient way. You will also be able to read and analyse literature and stories, and deeply understand how each text is technically structured. 

In the entire cycle of workshops, there will be a continuous interaction with the tutor, as always.

Our groups have no more than 5 participants so that the tutor can focus on each person's writing and specific needs.

The workshop is available in person in Brussels or Online.