Working with Scarlett Thomas, internationally bestselling author of The End of Mr. Y and The Sleepwalkers, you will learn the practical mechanics behind stories that hold attention, shape belief, and move people to act.

Scarlett will teach you the five-act structure she has developed and refined over more than two decades of writing, performance, and teaching. You’ll break stories down into their functional components - including the inciting incident, midpoint and ‘all hope is lost’ beat - and learn how to deploy them deliberately in writing, leadership, innovation, internal narratives, and moments of change.

This work is about controlling narrative rather than being controlled by it: understanding why some messages land, others drift, and how to design stories that do exactly what you intend.

This immersive two-day course is designed for high-achievers who want to understand - and command - the storytelling forces that make ideas spread, decisions stick, and audiences actually pay to hear what you have to say.

Across two concentrated days, you’ll learn why the most powerful stories generate pleasant anxiety, how tension and release are engineered, and why the same narrative principles apply to romantic comedy, politics, technology and finance. Drawing on classical theory and contemporary practice, Scarlett teaches a practical, five-act framework you can use immediately.

This is not about inspiration or personal storytelling. It’s about narrative control: structuring communication so people want to follow you, trust you and stay with you all the way to the end.

By the end of the course, you’ll leave with a new language for storytelling, a repeatable structure, and a sharpened sense of how to turn ideas into journeys others actively choose to take.

These rare weekend intensives are for writers who have already put in the work - novels drafted (and even published), screenplays written - but who sense that something essential still isn’t landing.

So often, promising projects are rejected for the same reason: they don’t leave the agent, editor, or commissioner hungry for more. This intensive asks the central question serious writers eventually face: how do you create that hunger? And how do you retain artistic integrity while you do?

Across an intensive weekend, you’ll explore what Scarlett calls the trinity of danger, desire, and dominion — the forces that make stories grip, disturb, seduce, and transform their audience. You’ll encounter familiar concepts such as jeopardy, stakes, the ticking clock, and relatability, not as buzzwords but as functional tools, learning why they so often fail on the page — and how to make them work.

This is not a beginner course. It is rigorous, demanding, and craft-heavy - designed for writers who want to understand why stories work, not just whether they do.

Note: These intensives are deliberately small and consistently oversubscribed. Early application is strongly recommended. You can apply by clicking here.

Book Scarlett to give one of her popular and immersive keynotes or after-dinner talks.

Scarlett Thomas delivers immersive, high-impact talks that combine storytelling theory, performance, and hard-won experience from writing, teaching, comedy, and elite amateur sport. These are talks designed to be remembered, not merely applauded.

Drawing on more than two decades of professional practice, Scarlett blends intellectual rigour with warmth, humour, and theatrical confidence - engaging audiences while giving them tools they can actually use.

She currently offers two keynote talks:

How to Be a Beginner

In this keynote, Scarlett explores the counter-intuitive power of beginner’s mind - and why looking foolish is often the fastest route to excellence.

Through stories from her own life - including accidentally reaching the top ranks nationally in her age group for tennis, and continuing to be booked as a performer across genres - Scarlett shows how deliberate beginner-thinking can unlock rapid learning, resilience, and long-term performance.

Danger, Desire & Dominion: The Dark Art of Storytelling

This keynote examines why certain stories seize attention, generate urgency, and quietly shape belief - while others are ignored, forgotten, or resisted.

Using examples from literature, business, and culture, Scarlett introduces her framework of danger, desire and dominion to show how narratives touch the most primal, ancient parts of our minds and create momentum, authority, and pleasure. Audiences leave with a sharper understanding of how stories actually work - and how narrative power is exercised, often invisibly, in organisations and leadership.