Introduction to Narrative Writing

Confronting a blank page and starting to write your first lines can become quite an intimidating challenge to face, but writing, just like any other creative field, can be worked on, practiced, and perfected. Renowned writer Alberto Chimal, author of novels, poems, stories, essays, and many other genres, will guide you through the process so that you are able to create memorable narratives.

In this course, learn all the essential steps to build a short story. Explore key concepts such as time, characters, space, plot, and structure, seeing how they work in practice. Alberto Chimal teaches you the fundamentals and techniques of creative writing so you can face the blank page and perfect your narrative writing technique.

Start the course by getting to know Alberto Chimal, how he started in the world of creative writing, and see his main projects. See where he draws most of his inspiration from, in literature, comics, or cinema, and go over what you will do in the course.

In the second unit, take your first steps in creating an interesting and memorable story. See the concept of genres and understand the three basic steps of all narrative—approach, development, and conclusion—important when creating logic and sense to your story.

Delve into two fundamental aspects of narrative: plot and structure. Learn how to organize the sequences, analyzing how they entwine, and the different ways in which they can be organized. Explore different structural examples and Alberto Chimal will give you advice on how to manage and provoke emotions with your text.

Explore the four essential elements to create any story: space, time, characters, and perspective. Learn how to create a world inside a story and create character types that inhabit your world. Discover how to tell a story from the best point of view to complete your story.

Lastly, Alberto Chimal gives a series of tips for you to find inspiration and shares some easy tricks to ease your daily writing routine. You will also see the importance of sharing your work and listening to other opinions to get feedback on your story.

Write a detailed narrative: a brief text with all the essential elements of a memorable story.

For all those interested in starting to write their own stories.

No previous knowledge nor experience is necessary.

You will need basic material to hand-write (pen and paper) or to write digitally (a computer with word-processing software like Word or Google Docs). If you have a blog or a social media account where you can write texts easily, even better.