Best Storytelling Classes in Los Angeles
Many people think of storytelling as something related to fiction in books, movies, or television shows. However, storytelling plays an integral role in nearly every aspect of communication, including news, education, and advertising. In essence, narratives comprise the stories people tell that hold information together that helps others engage in a discussion. Narration stitches together this information into a coherent unit through experiences, testimonies, and anecdotes that help people make sense of events or concepts by allowing them to connect with others in understanding the world around them.
There are courses available throughout Los Angeles for working to improve storytelling skills for helping individuals more effectively connect with audiences in writing, teaching, or marketing for communication through speech, print, or digital media. Therefore, it might be a good idea to enroll in a course that focuses on storytelling to open up new ways for communicating.
Why You Should Learn Storytelling in Los Angeles
Because communication is how people exchange information on every level, anyone living in Los Angeles can benefit from taking courses to improve storytelling skills. Becoming a good storyteller can help in virtually any career or activity. Good storytelling involves developing good narrative skills, which means being able to stitch together information into a coherent unit.
Storytelling skills are crucial for public speaking, editing audio and video, storyboarding, marketing products, or spreading public service information. Storytelling helps people connect for not just entertainment but also getting informed.
In-Person Storytelling Classes in Los Angeles
Storytelling is a crucial element for communicating information in nearly every area of life. While there are plenty of live online classes for training to improve skills with storytelling, some people simply feel more comfortable learning inside a classroom with their instructor standing right there in front of them. For those individuals, there are courses available throughout Los Angeles for improving skills in storytelling.
Teenagers living in Los Angeles can enroll in the Intermediate Digital Photography for Teens (12-18) class, available through the Los Angeles Center of Photography, located at 10200 Venice Boulevard. This course capitalizes on the prevalence of digital photography available for anyone carrying around a smartphone–which means everybody. This class emphasizes using digital photography to tell stories by teaching students how to use images for interpreting the world surrounding them from mastering technical skills for engaging in creative and thought-provoking narratives through storytelling.
This course teaches students about how to tell stories through pictures. Uploading photographs and videos is how many people communicate these days, so putting photographs on Instagram or videos on YouTube and other social media platforms has become another way for people to tell their stories in the digital age.
This five-session class costs $435.
Prerequisites: Participants are required to have taken the Basic Digital Photography for Teens course or getting the instructor’s approval to enroll.
Anyone looking for a relaxing way for improving on skills with public speaking or making presentations can enroll in the Storytelling for Comedians workshop, which is available through DBA Flappers University, located at 102 E. Magnolia Boulevard in Burbank. This workshop helps individuals enhance their skills for storytelling, which can be used for a variety of occupations and purposes. Comedy can be especially effective for connecting with audiences from a reverend on the pulpit trying to get a congregation to relate to a passage from the Bible to a teacher trying to help students connect with topics in an assignment to an employee making a presentation before colleagues hoping to break up the monotony of a team meeting.
This single-session workshop costs $25.
Prerequisites: This workshop requires no prerequisites.
Virtual Storytelling Classes
For anyone earning a living in a city like Los Angeles interested in training to improve on communication skills, it’s understandable that some people might not look forward to getting back out into traffic following a long day at work to find a classroom somewhere. This is why virtual learning provides an appealing option. Live online courses offer hands-on lessons for improving anyone’s skills at storytelling from expert instructors who can help new students learn how to communicate better by establishing a narrative flow for connecting with audiences.
Virtual learning provides a convenient option for training about how to organize information for communication in personal, social or professional activities.
Anyone looking to improve on storytelling skills can enroll at the Columbia Business School, which offers the Strategic Storytelling: Maximum Impact in a Digital World online course. Smartphone technology has turned everybody into pocket videographers, recording everything from mundane everyday activities to ill-advised stunts. With the convenience of this technology available to everyone, many people have developed a passion for recording videos and soon realize that they have a talent for the medium. The trick is gathering the abundant content recorded into something that makes sense.
This course emphasizes storytelling as an essential skill for helping people make sense of the world around them. Since human beings have been drawing images on cave walls to visualize a story to convey a message that others can understand, people have figured out different ways for communicating. With today’s digitally saturated environment, being able to make sense of so much content created with everyday technology through storytelling can help people make sense of what’s going on.
This course provides participants with frameworks, methodologies, and real-world examples that will enable them to communicate in today’s complicated digital landscape. Upon completing this course, students will have a better understanding of the purpose of narration, which includes balancing facts with interpretation for effectively communicating with audiences in education, entertainment, and marketing.
This three-session course costs $4,250.
Prerequisites: This course lists no prerequisites.
Podcasting has become among the most popular ways for storytelling with many people these days who may not have otherwise been able to find a voice or venue for telling stories that reveal lives, information, and history. Anyone with an interest in podcasting can enroll at UC Berkeley Advanced Media Institute for the Podcasting: Telling Stories in Sound online course. This course trains students in key techniques for producing podcasts, which includes developing a distinct voice and approach to storytelling. Participants will have access to exclusive resources along with getting feedback from learning how to produce a podcast from an idea up through uploading a finished product.
This five-week program costs $840.
Prerequisites: This beginner-level course requires no podcasting experience, but basic computer skills are necessary along with the ability and willingness for learning new tech-related skills, including equipment and software.
People who have considered improving on skills for engaging an audience can enroll in the Storytelling 101 live online course from Writing Pad. This course teaches students how to tell concise and humorous stories using their own experiences for connecting with any audience. The class uses exercises for constructing engaging stories focused on a central theme. Upon completing this course, students will be able to captivate audiences with stories that connect through presentations, marketing, and lectures.
This single-day class costs $95.
Prerequisites: This course lists no prerequisites.
Private Group Storytelling Classes in Los Angeles
Anyone living in Los Angeles looking to book team building activities can use CourseHorse for staging private group events covering various topics. For example, CourseHorse has storytelling team building events, including Storytelling For Business: Presentation to Pitches, which is a workshop focused on training groups on different ways to tell stories to use in business for helping people become more effective public speakers and presenters.
For any organization unable to find an event that fits their needs, they can use the website’s contact form to book storytelling-related courses for their own private team building events. CourseHorse also allows clients to adjust the group size after booking the event if necessary. CourseHorse provides customers who have booked events with access to the education provider’s existing network, including print and digital publishers.