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Introducing one of the biggest MasterClass courses yet: Award-winning author Neil Gaiman teaches students how to create compelling plots, new characters, and bring unseen worlds to life. If you want to be a compelling author, you’ll need to improve your storytelling.
In 19 lessons, the world-renowned writer takes his students through his own philosophy on what drives a story while also guiding them on how to develop their own unique writing voice. As Gaiman reminds aspiring writers: “Most of us find our own voices only after we’ve sounded like a lot of other people.” Take what Neil Gaiman teaches in this course and adapt it to your own writing style.
In an interview with Vanity Fair, the author of American Gods, Coraline, Stardust, and The Sandman, reiterates that his class is more about sharpening
I definitely talk about writing, but what I get into more—because it’s much more interesting to me—is the mechanics of how you find and build the story and make your characters interesting. How you take that idea and build it into a short story, how you can look at a short story and decide if it has the length to become a novel. I suppose it’s my justification. I know lots of novelists. Novelists are very nice people. But I’m not a novelist. I’m a storyteller who sometimes writes novels, and graphic novels, and short stories, and makes film or television.
Neil Gaiman
The course includes a downloadable workbook with creative writing exercises and interactive resources plus lesson recaps and ‘office hours’ where students can submit videos to classmates and hear back from Neil himself!
Below is the entire lesson plan:
- Introduction
- Truth in Fiction
- Sources of Inspiration
- Finding Your Voice
- Developing the Story
- Story Case Study: The Graveyard Book
- Short Fiction
- Short Fiction Case Study: “March Tale”
- Dialogue and Character
- Character Case Study: “October Tale”
- Worldbuilding
- Descriptions
- Humor
- Genre
- Comics
- Dealing with Writer’s Block
- Editing
- Rules for Writers
- The Writer’s Responsibilities
About MasterClass
If you’ve never taken a MasterClass before, it’s a great opportunity to take a peek into the mind and explore the process of some of the world’s leading experts in photography, writing, music production, filmmaking, and even cooking. You may be aware of Malcolm Gladwell’s writing course, Tom Morello’s electric guitar course, or Serena Williams teaches tennis course.
If you’re looking for a great gift, consider sending one of the courses to a loved one or friend. Even better, gift someone the All-Access Pass so they can explore all the courses they want!