What is My Goal?

I want to become a storyteller. By storyteller, I don’t mean just someone who tells tall tales to children, but rather someone who can use any medium to tell stories. I’ve always loved stories: movies, TV, theater, dance, music, photography, art, and words. I remember my mother reading to me and telling me stories when I was a kid. I remember wanting to learn to read, so that I could read stories anytime I wanted.

In my days in college and in the jobs that I have had, I have always been around storytelling. I’ve had many different interest from art, photography, creative writing, TV production, film making, and journalism. With so many different interest, my mind has swirled with confusion over which one to choose. I thought these fields were so far apart that I would have to choose one. I’ve spent many years debating which path to go down. Recently, it came to me that these fields aren’t really that far apart. The one thing that they all have in common is that they are all storytellers. Everything became clear to me when I decided to focus on this core of storytelling and not on the specific delivery methods/media.

A goal is something that must be measurable and have a deadline. So here is my goal:
I will be making a living as a storyteller by June 10th, 2016.

So that is the big goal, but in order to get there, I need to break it down into smaller chunks. The first phase will be learning. A solid foundation of knowledge will be the base on which I can build a strong career. I’ve decided to approach this learning phase like a college degree program. I’ve assessed my previous classes, training and experience, and determined that I need eight to ten more classes to get to the level that would be equivalent to a bachelor’s degree.

I’ve come up with a curriculum that I think will provide the basics of storytelling through the advanced story production classes that will prepare me for the career that I seek. Here is my plan for the classes and schedule that I will be following for the next year and a half. Each term will be sixteen weeks and I’ll take two or three classes each term.

Term 1 (June 6th, 2011): Visual Journalism, Digital Publishing;
Term 2 (Sept. 5th): Scriptwriting, Masters of Storytelling, Acting for Film;
Term 3: (January 2nd, 2012): Documentary Film, Storytelling of a Specific Culture;
Term 4: (May 7th): Narrative Film, Storytelling Today;

A future post will provide a more in depth breakdown of each of the classes.