TRANSCRIPT

Why stories? I think stories define us. We live in them as human beings. They constantly surround us. Whether we're aware of it or not, who we are is a story that we’re writing and ultimately it is influenced by the stories we consume, the stories we tell each other, the stories that we use to bond or to differentiate ourselves one from the other. I mean, what is social media other than a grand story experiment? Whether we’re for it or against it, we live, I think, in the age of story and more people are becoming conscious of this, perhaps, than ever before. We see people having access to tools to write their stories. I mean, computers allow us to churn out any number of pages in a day or a month. You know, in the Middle Ages you had to worry about going out and getting a cow's hide—a whole animal—in order to be able to tell two pages of a story, but in this age of information oversaturation we don't know how to tell great stories, and so I went on a quest about five years ago to really look at the sort of DNA blueprint of what great stories have in common, and I suppose that when it comes down to “Why this course?” it's really an answer to that question. I wanted to learn to tell a great story myself. I didn't want to be constrained by a sort of paint-by-numbers system. I wanted to read what every great teacher of storytelling has taught and take as many courses as I could and distill that down for my own students both at the university and in the workshops I teach, and at the end of the day this course is my attempt to share that with you.

So I haven't really answered the question, “Why this course?” I've answered it from the perspective of a storyteller, but I should get real here and say, “Why this course on the internet?” Why this course being shared with anybody at any time? I think stories are the best way that we can seize control of what we want the world to look like because over time stories dictate the course of how societies evolve. Sometimes learning gets locked up in institutions or it remains the domain of specialists, and we get so consumed with the stories that we’re telling and writing, or the courses we’re teaching, that we don't think that there's millions of people around the world who would love to have access to that information or we think it has to be wrapped up in books, and I love books. I mean, you can tell behind me I have some sitting out. I just think that in this day and age there are better ways to learn than just reading a book, and this is my attempt to coach you step-by-step through the process and give you that kind of personal attention and encouragement you need to bring the great story out of you.

You know, Socrates once said that he saw himself as a midwife, that the ideas lay within the student and that he just had to bring them forth. Another comparison that’s often been made in the realm of teaching is that of a statue, like the statue is already in the marble and the great artist just chisels it forth. So that's what we're going to be doing in this course: we’re going to be be going through the steps that help me tell a great story, and I hope you'll be able to make some of them your own. I want to democratize the tools that storytellers need and find the next great storytellers and help them with the tips I have in my own work so that they can go out and change the world, and I think that's possible, and I just want to tell you before we get started that: don't give up, sometimes the going gets tough, but that's how rewards are earned, and if you have a dream and you feel called to be a storyteller, you will succeed in that dream. What the timing looks like, I'm not quite sure, but I know that the building blocks that you will learn in this course will maybe inspire you either to get there right away or to find your own path, and I'm looking forward to being your coach throughout this process.

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