Narrative Nonfiction Masterclass Schedule

Monday, August 24

The Eight Pillars: An Introduction to Narrative Nonfiction
Class One of The Footpath · £50 · 4-6 PM BST · live online

This is the gateway class — the only place a newcomer can be handed the whole territory in a single sitting.

We begin with the question most people arrive with and few can answer cleanly: what is narrative nonfiction? Not journalism, though it shares journalism’s spine. Not memoir exactly, though memoir lives inside it. Not the essay exactly, though the essay is one of its rooms. It is the craft of true stories told with a novelist’s tools and a historian’s conscience — where nothing is invented and everything is shaped. It is the form that holds memoir, personal essay, literary journalism, nature writing, biography and travel writing under one roof, and once you can see the roof, you can see how the rooms connect.

Then we walk the Eight Pillars, one by one: presence, arc, character, dialogue, voice, language, setting, resonance. These are the framework underpinning everything taught at The Narrative Life — the same architecture my students have used to win The Nature Chronicles Prize and the Bradt New Travel Writer Award, and to sign contracts with publishers including Timber Press. In this class you will meet each pillar in published work, so you are not learning definitions but learning to see: how a paragraph builds presence, where an arc turns, what a single line of dialogue is doing that three of exposition could not. We will read closely and briefly, and you will watch the machinery become visible.

What you will leave with

• A working definition of narrative nonfiction you can actually use, and a map of the genres inside it
• The Eight Pillars, illustrated in published passages
• A clear sense of which pillar your own writing most needs next — and where to take it
• A short reading list to carry into the rest of the week

Who it is for

Anyone standing at the start. Writers with an idea and no form for it. Academics, journalists and professionals trained into a voice that no longer fits. Readers who suspect they might be writers. No experience required and none assumed — this is the front door.

Bring a notebook and something you have been meaning to write about.

Pre-reading: “Death of a Pig” by E. B. White.

Bring: the true story you’ve always wanted to write, in a sentence.

About Kathryn

Kathryn Aalto is a New York Times bestselling author, historian, and public speaker whose books include The Natural World of Winnie-the-Pooh and Writing Wild: Women Poets, Ramblers, and Mavericks Who Shape How We See the Natural World. From her home in Devon, England, she leads The Narrative Life, an international school of narrative nonfiction — many of her students beginning writers who arrived with nothing but a true story they needed to tell. Her teaching is grounded in her Eight Pillars of Narrative Nonfiction, a framework for turning real life into resonant story. She believes the writing life is not just a talent bestowed on the few but a path anyone can walk with excellent teaching — and she has spent her career showing people the way in through narrative nonfiction masterclasses, mentoring, and longer courses. Learn more about her upcoming autumn courses in narrative nonfiction and poetry here: Online Creative Nonfiction Writing Courses | Kathryn Aalto

Endorsements

“The Research for Writers masterclass was simply superb and the boost I needed to help to conceptualize, and most importantly, get started on the research I need to do for a book project. The accompanying guide is robust and detailed with practical information around online and offline sources to explore. What’s more is that the instructor taught from personal experience with vivid stories of how she approached research for her best-selling work. I highly recommend this masterclass!” — Chris A., New York, New York

Kathryn Aalto is a world-class teacher. I had 30 years’ experience as a journalist and copywriter, but I was a novice in narrative non fiction. Kathryn taught me how to write, guiding me on a journey of discovery, revealing the secrets of sensory writing, bringing filmic vividness to my descriptions of the world around me and uncovering the inner landscapes of the mind. I will be forever grateful for her inspirational teaching and the support of the remarkable writing communities she curates, from whom I have received invaluable encouragement and among whom I have made enduring friendships.” — Gary F., Rutland, England

“Recently I completed Kathryn Aalto’s Memoir and Life Writing Level 1 course.  Kathryn is a gifted communicator. Numerous beta readers, intimately familiar for decades with my writing, have mentioned finding deeper, more exciting levels of my storytelling ability since I studied with the extraordinary Ms. Aalto. I have already enrolled in Level 2 Memoir and Life Writing.  Her writing course is, bar none, the best value for money of any writing course I have ever taken, either online or in person.” — Bonnie B. L., Mobile, Alabama