Curiosity, Exploration and a Good Yarn: Storytelling Outside of Structure
With
Cara DiGirolamo

Stuck on structure? Does thinking about act breaks make you feel disconnected from your story? In this workshop, Cara will present an alternative way of approaching your story arc and keeping your readers interested. Informed by script doctor David Baboulene’s theory of knowledge gaps and other formal approaches to literature, we will explore a technique that uses the readers’ curiosity to draw them through the story. We will ask what kind of questions keep your readers engaged; how the readers’ knowledge of genre conventions shapes the narrative; whether to treat the reader as an audience or an ally; how to make sure the reader is interested in the same things that you are as a storyteller; and how to build a great climax. With these tools, we will build a new path that leads from a great idea to a compelling narrative.​

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Cara DiGirolamo is an author of fantastic fiction. Her work has been published in magazines and edited collections, including Beneath Ceaseless Skies, Fantasy Magazine, Cast of Wonders, Daily Science Fiction, NewMyths.com, The Deadlands, and Tragedy Queens, edited by Leza Cantoral. Her short play, “Weather Report,” was produced at the 2020 Brave New Play Rites Festival, an excerpt of “Sway,” a queer competitive ballroom dancing romcom/sitcom, was read at the Vancouver Cold Reading Series, and an excerpt from her new play, “Wildstrain,” was showcased at the end of the Block A program at the Playwright’s Theatre Center. She received an MFA in Fiction from the University of British Columbia in 2022 and has earned a PhD in Linguistics from Cornell University. Cara is a professor in the English department at Capilano University in North Vancouver, teaching English and Creative Writing. caradigirolamo.com

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Cara is facilitating the workshop, Curiousity, Exploration and a Good Yarn, on Sunday, September 15, at 1:30 pm.