Welcome to SPACE, our adult continuing education program which offers interactive monthly courses for personal enrichment! Learn more here.

January 2025  Spotlight  Launchpad  Hybrid
Module 1 in Powerful Short StoriesCluster
Mixed Lecture/Discussion • Medium intensity
What makes a good story? How can we make our characters feel like real people?

Using a combination of recorded lectures, in-class discussion and exercises, you will find out how to employ Aristotle’s precepts on character, theme and emotional catharsis to enrich your creative practice. You will also discover how Aristotle’s teleological understanding of causality can help you discover the final design of your creative work. This module will be a must for fiction authors, screenwriters and directors, RPG game masters, or anyone who wants to weave a dynamic tale!

The module will follow an 8-session structure as shown below:
Outline 8-Session Structure
Week 1 Lecture 1: Introduction to the Poetics
Workshop 1: Your Narrative's Purpose
Week 2 Lecture 2: Character and Theme
Workshop 2: Discovering Your Character and Theme
Week 3 Lecture 3: Structure
Workshop 3: Unfolding Your Story's Structure
Week 4 Lecture 4: Catharsis
Workshop 4: Sticking the Landing

Required Texts

Students will need to access a translation of Aristotle's Poetics. Many reliable public domain translations are available online for free.

This class needs 3 more votes to get confirmed.

This module is a standing candidate which means it will be ready to launch as soon as it gets enough interest. Token holders can set aside a Token to reserve their seat for this candidate and help it get confirmed.

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This will be a Hybrid class (4 lectures & 4 discussion sessions). Each week will consist of 1 hour of recorded lecture and 1 hour of live discussion (not recorded) for a total of 8 class hours over the course of the month.

DELIVERY PLAN
1. On Thursdays we'll provide students with the lecture recording which can watch in preparation for the live discussion session on the Mondays following.
2. The Monday sessions each week will be a live discussion session (not recorded).

Days and Times

Pre-recorded lectures will be supplemented by live meetings Mondays at 11:00 PM Eastern for four 1-hour sessions on January 6, 13, 20, 27

Signum Time
US/Eastern
Note Your Time
unknown
Thu, Jan 2
11:00 PM
This is not a live session. Instead, we'll provide students with the lecture 1 recording this day.
Mon, Jan 6
11:00 PM
LIVE DISCUSSION SESSION
Thu, Jan 9
11:00 PM
This is not a live session. Instead, we'll provide students with the lecture 2 recording this day.
Mon, Jan 13
11:00 PM
LIVE DISCUSSION SESSION
Thu, Jan 16
11:00 PM
This is not a live session. Instead, we'll provide students with the lecture 3 recording this day.
Mon, Jan 20
11:00 PM
LIVE DISCUSSION SESSION
Thu, Jan 23
11:00 PM
This is not a live session. Instead, we'll provide students with the lecture 4 recording this day.
Mon, Jan 27
11:00 PM
LIVE DISCUSSION SESSION
If you have any questions about the SPACE program, please reach out to [email protected].