Hey friends,

The start of the year is a great opportunity to hit the “refresh” button on life. Whether you want to learn a new skill or reframe an old outlook, there’s something beautiful about January that encourages it.

With that in mind, I’m excited to share a project that will help you refresh your writing practice.

Allow me to introduce…

Story Study.

Story Study is a (completely free) 10-day email series on becoming a better storyteller. It takes the core elements of my storytelling process, and distills it into a highly practical and actionable curriculum.

The key word here is practical. Instead of showing you diagrams of the Hero’s Journey or walking you through 3-act structures, I’m going to distill the art of storytelling into something applicable. Original frameworks that can be used immediately, regardless of the stories you tell.

To do this, I will share 8 lessons and 2 workshops for you to review over the next 10 days. The lessons will communicate the ideas, and the workshops will give you practice time. If you take 5-10 minutes each day to sit with the lessons and do the assignments, I’m confident that you’ll get a ton of value out of this curriculum.

👉 Click here to be automatically enrolled for free.​​

Most of the concepts I’ll cover are from my flagship 4-week course, Thinking In Stories. We’ll only go over a fraction of what I teach there, but it’ll be enough to shift the way you think of storytelling going forward. If you’re interested in the full experience, feel free to a look at the course page to see what you can expect. Enrollment opens next Monday, January 6th, and the course kicks off on the 27th.

In the meantime, if you’re ready to get the first lesson of Story Study in your inbox, just click the link below to get started. The whole curriculum is a 4,000+ word, 35-drawing exploration of the craft, divided into a clear and digestible 10-day series. Expect frameworks, examples, and worksheets that will help you bridge the gap between theory and practice. And if you’ve taken this email course before, I recommend you go through it again to solidify these concepts even further.

The goal of Story Study is simple: to help you transform your best ideas into even better stories.

👉 Click here and get the first lesson today.​​

Finally, if you’d like to share it with a friend, you can send them to this page. Enjoy, and let me know what you think!

A Timeless New Year

I once wrote an essay on how I internalize the arrival of a new year, and why I don’t set targets at the outset. Here’s an excerpt:

"Hope isn't enough to create lasting change, especially if it's contingent upon a social construct like celebrating the turning of a clock's hands. What's more important is that you've reframed your identity as a whole, and that you truly believe in this fresh approach to viewing yourself. Ideally you do this irrespective of what date is on the calendar, and instead focus on the story you want to tell about your own life.

This is why I don’t set many goals at the start of the year. Because by doing so, I’m assuming that the person I am at the start of the year is who I’m comparing myself to by the end of the year. This is quite absurd if you think about it, given that each day is an opportunity to reframe and recontextualize your life in a substantive way. What you once thought was desirable can become repulsive, and the inverse can also be true. There are no absolutes to the things you think you want, and anchoring your desires in the form of goals forces you to adhere to that rigid identity."

You can read the entire essay here.

A Brief Parting Question

What’s one bright moment that you’re sure to remember from 2024?

For me, it's the look on my daughter's face when I go to pick her up from school. The delight on her face when she sees me (which is followed up by a gallop toward me) is something I know won't last forever, so I'm cherishing it as much as I can.

What about you?

As always, hit reply to share any thoughts, to respond to the parting question, or to simply say hello. I love hearing from you.

And once again, it’d be great to hear your experience with Story Study. To get the first lesson in your inbox, simply click here and enjoy the ride. I’m sure you’ll get a lot out of it.

Have a great rest of your week! Happy new year!

-Lawrence