"Story is, in essence, just a question followed by an answer. The inciting incident poses the question. The story is the answer. So is your question powerful enough? And how are you answering it?"
"If you understand character change, you can break any story in a day – even an hour – and fix story problems incredibly quickly. It’s transformational."
"Find the wound in your audience – the thing that hurts them most – then heal it. This creates incredibly addictive story."
"With story we wrap a pattern around the world to make sense of disparate things. It gives us order, which makes us feel safe. If you get this element of a story right, it's addictive."
"Story is our way of ordering the universe, and is innate. Whether you're writing a script or a speech, you’re arguing with the world around you in order to find and pass on a lesson."
"All stories crave the same pattern. That shape is ubiquitous across the globe, at any time and in any culture. It maps directly to the scientific method by which we make sense of the world."
"Where do you place your heart? Who do your audience most want to be? Understand that and you have a seriously potent story proposition."
Explore story training
We’ve spent forty years exploring what makes stories work and why, while capturing some of the largest audiences in TV history. And twenty years turning that into training that works.
We teach everyone from screenwriters, showrunners and games writers to novelists, brand teams, leaders and comms people – anyone with an idea they need someone else to care about.
Develop your story skills through one of our established courses, or bring us in to train your team.
Our established courses cover everything from script development and games writing to production accounting and showrunning skills.
Sharpen your team’s story skills with fully customisable training built around your organisation’s real-world challenges and goals.
John is the UK’s leading expert on narrative and has spent years analysing how stories work and why they resonate with audiences worldwide.
His extensive production career has seen him work on some of the world’s most lucrative, viewed and critically acclaimed TV drama.
Our training is based on the story principles outlined in John’s bestselling book on structure, Into the Woods.
Enjoy premium online training that is flexible yet holds you accountable, social yet challenging and transformative.
All courses are taught in our online classroom by active industry experts with a track record in developing talent.
The best way to learn is through doing – and that’s what we offer. You’ll work as part of a small group, learning from rigorous exercises and peer interaction, feedback and refinement.
Outside of the training, keep on track with regular writers’ rooms, share and find job opportunities, and collaborate on projects on our online alumni platform.
Development Exec
Working with John Yorke and his team was a start-to-finish great experience. They were incredibly collaborative and made sure the entire story course experience was tailored to our goals. Building it for us from the ground up. The sessions with John were informative, dynamic, and entertaining, not something typically found within the story structure educational experience. We’ve taken the lessons to heart and immediately looked to apply them to our own projects, from the script stage all the way through production. The impact has been immediate, and I’m confident the lessons will continue to shape how we think about story long term.
Assistant Director, Media and Digital at Greater Manchester Combined Authority
John and Susannah made time to understand our team’s needs, and it really paid off. John’s session got the room fizzing with creative energy. Colleagues who do not usually work together felt free to share ideas and to try out new approaches to storytelling. We left feeling inspired, with the tools, techniques, and confidence to apply what we learned in our daily work.
Former Managing Partner, Somethin’ Else
“I wanted to say how brilliant the course was. It really transformed the way we discuss ideas. For my team it was a real step change, giving them a shared vocabulary and improving everyone’s ability to feedback on each other’s work in a positive collaborative way.”
Executive Manager, TAC TV
“The fact that the JYS team wanted to find out more about our requirements in order to ensure that we received the most appropriate [professional training] was greatly appreciated. It was great to get options on the practical task…and it was a perfect fit.”
Acacia Avenue
“John is one of those rare speakers who has deep expertise but wears it lightly. He held our audience spellbound with great insight and superb examples, delivered with a mixture of intelligence and humour that was exactly what our event needed.”
Head of Screen Arts, National Film & Television School
“Story lies at the heart of everything we do at the NFTS. John’s witty, wide ranging and informative talks, tailored to our students’ needs, are unmissable events in our Screen Arts calendar.”
Deputy Head of Documentaries, Channel 4
“John ran a session for the Channel4 Cutting Edge Directors’ scheme. It was fascinating, and he used an extraordinarily broad range of cultural references in a brilliantly accessible way. We would jump at the chance of working with him again.”
Helen Tompson shares lessons from her own experience in securing funding for projects, from researching opportunities to getting something useful out of the process, whatever the outcome.
John Yorke explores the importance of symmetry to great storytelling, and why the midpoint sits firmly at the heart of it.
We present the complete introductory chapter to John Yorke’s new book, Trip to the Moon.
Subscribe to our monthly newsletter for exclusive opportunities and bursaries, industry news and events, and updates from John and team.
Enter your email below to receive our full course prospectus and find out more.
