Stories come in all shapes and sizes. Whether you choose to tell yours on the small or big screen, in book form, or through essays and articles, you want to surprise audiences with unique stories and fresh perspectives. Besides entertaining people, you hope to shed new light on existing concepts, fuel debate, or even teach audiences something.

Let’s make two assumptions:

1. You want to write great stories.
2. You want to write them fast.

Research might sound like something that’ll slow down your storytelling process. And doesn’t it often make for on-the-nose writing?

We’re here to tell you the opposite is true. If you go about research the right way, your stories will be more solid and you’ll get them down much faster. You’ll also find that doing research is a lot of fun—especially if you embrace research methods that introduce you to new people, communities, and stories. Plus, you’ll never be short of inspiration again!

Expand your storytelling skills

Can’t wait to expand your storytelling skillset and speed up your creation process?

In this seminar, you’ll learn how to:

• Research a story you plan to write
• Use research as an endless source of inspiration (and eliminate writer’s block!)
• Think outside of the box by applying creative research methods (research is much more than diving into the archives)
• Apply ‘research on the go,’ a method that helps you tell better stories faster (it just takes 30 minutes a day)
• Create a concise research plan
• Identify the type of research that suits you best
• Research “what if” scenarios
• Use research findings as prompts to propel your story forward
• Organically incorporate research findings into your stories (no one likes ‘fact stuffing!’)

You’ll also get tips on:

• Approaching research with the right mindset to avoid getting bogged down in detail
• Using tools and software to organize, retrieve, and synthesize your findings

Learn from a real-life case study

Besides providing hands-on advice, instructor Annalisa Koukouves will also discuss a real-life research case study with author, editor, journalist, and teacher Adin Dobkin. His book research has taken him to places like France and Texas, and he has taught research to writers for several years.

We’ll end the seminar with a Q&A where you can ask Annalisa and Adin all your research questions.

Adin Dobkin is a writer, editor, and teacher in Brooklyn, NY. His debut work of nonfiction, Sprinting Through No Man's Land: Endurance, Tragedy, and Rebirth in the 1919 Tour de France was named a Coup de Cœur by the American Library in Paris. His essays, criticism, and reporting have been published in the New York Times Magazine, The Atlantic, and the Paris Review Daily, among others.