If “story is king”, as the book industry declares, then narrative drive is story’s engine. But how do you come up with a story that has enough drive, while staying true to your need to tell stories that matter to you? If the heart of your story is emotional and psychological, how do you make it compelling without resorting to unlikely events? How do you make sure even the most dramatic events don’t end up being “one damn thing after another”? What if you’ve had feedback that your project doesn’t have enough drive, or readers don’t care enough?

In this tutorial we will unpack how story-structure keeps a reader reading, and use short exercises to explore ways of using that knowledge to shape or reshape your story. You should leave with some new tools – and perhaps some new ideas for a story.