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“Karen was fantastic at distilling years of experience into advice that we could easily comprehend.”
Everyone’s looking for audio stories that are “narrative.” But how, exactly, do narrative stories differ from traditional radio reports? (Hint: the answer has nothing to do with music or chatty narration.)
In this workshop, WBUR’s Karen Given will deconstruct the elements of narrative storytelling and offer practical, real-world techniques to turn your “reporting” into “storytelling.” You’ll learn how narrative sounds and why it sounds that way. You’ll also learn methods of interviewing for a story, discuss options for structuring narrative features, and consider ways to shake out of old habits and embrace a different way of approaching your stories. With lots of support and encouragement, you’ll apply these techniques over the workshop and produce a 5-minute narrative story.
We recommend this class for intermediate or advanced producers. If you have a grasp on reporting, writing, and producing feature stories in a traditional public radio-style and want to deepen your storytelling - this is the workshop for you.
DATES
This workshop meets for a total of four sessions every other Wednesday, 6:30-9:30 p.m., on the following dates:
January 29
February 12
February 26
March 11
There is also a showcase on March 25. If you register, please save this date.
ABOUT THE INSTRUCTOR
Karen Given is the Executive Producer of NPR’s Only A Game, produced by WBUR in Boston. She’s worked in radio since she was 16 years old, but only made the switch to narrative in 2015, when she was tasked with transitioning Only A Game to a narrative/storytelling format. That transition required her to stop being simply a listener of narrative stories. Instead she started start dissecting them, to see how they work.
The transition to narrative has been successful for Only A Game – making it NPR’s fastest growing existing weekend show. And using her newly developed narrative skills, Karen won her second national Edward R. Murrow award for sports reporting in 2017.
PRICING
The cost of this workshop is $250 for non-members and $200 for members of the Podcast Garage or members of the Harvard Ed Portal (i.e. any Allston-Brighton resident). Sign up below!
We're offering scholarships for this workshop. Learn more here.
CANCELLATION POLICY
Please register for a workshop in advance whenever possible; we cannot guarantee entry for walk-ins. If registering is cost-prohibitive, please email us at boston@podcastgarage.org or apply for a workshop scholarship.
In the event of low enrollment or severe weather, we may cancel or reschedule a workshop. You will be notified at least three business days before the workshop and offered a full refund. Please keep this in mind while making any travel plans.
If you wish to cancel your registration for any reason, please notify us 24 hours beforehand for a full refund. We can provide “credit” to the Podcast Garage for any cancellations under 24 hours.