Journalist · Screenwriter · Field Guide
THE BOOK
Every storytelling model, one craft. From Aristotle to the algorithm.
330 pages · 28 chapters · Les Deux Rives Éditions, 2026
“Every generation invents a new theory of story, and every one of them describes the same fire.”
The argument
Dangerously Good at Storytelling
A craft notebook on narrative structure.
Twenty-eight chapters on how stories are built; tested against more than twenty-four years of fieldwork. Not a course, not a method. A working notebook for people who tell stories for a living.
Les Deux Rives Éditions, 2026.
FIELD NOTE
More than eighty percent of what is said around a fire after dark is story. It has been measured. The campfire is the oldest broadcast slot in existence, and it has always belonged to the storytellers.
Inside
What you get
- The four-beat spine that holds any story together: character, conflict, curiosity, change
- Why a scene without a turn is only an announcement
- How to engineer the one line your audience will repeat at dinner
- What the San trackers of the Namib know about narrative that no seminar teaches
- Why Wole Soyinka said a tiger does not proclaim its tigritude
- Vonnegut’s shapes of stories, and the science that proved him right
- Field notes from the road, worked examples, and quick-reference tables
- A full index, a glossary, and every source, so you can go further
With the voices of Hemingway, Morrison, Le Guin, Auster, Wolkers, Soyinka, and the storytellers of the Kalahari.
For journalists, guides, screenwriters, marketers, founders: anyone whose living depends on being listened to.
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E-book ISBN | Paperback ISBN | 330 pages
The author
Arjen Westra is a Dutch journalist, screenwriter, guidebook author and expedition leader. Twenty-four years of telling Africa’s stories: on the page, on the screen, and in the field.
Three published guidebooks. A membership of the Kenyan Scriptwriters Guild. And a great many nights around a fire with sixteen strangers who had to be kept listening.
Not sure yet? Read a week first.
Campfire Craft:
Questions
What format is the direct e-book?
EPUB, the open standard. It opens in Apple Books, Google Play Books, Kobo, Calibre and almost every reading app. It is DRM-free, so it is yours: read it on any device you own, now and in ten years.
Why buy direct instead of through a store?
Because roughly twice as much of it reaches me, and because it is how the newsletter stays free. You get exactly the same file. If a store is more convenient for you, use the store. No hard feelings.
Is there a paperback?
Yes: 330 pages, cream paper, printed on demand and rolling out across the Amazon marketplaces. If it is not showing in your country yet, the e-book is available everywhere today.
Is this only for writers?
No. It was written for anyone whose living depends on being listened to: journalists, guides, screenwriters, marketers, founders, teachers. The models are the same. Only the room changes.
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Write to me and I will fix it. That is the other advantage of buying direct: there is a person on the other end.
“Pay attention. Be astonished. Tell about it. The rest is craft.”
— Mary Oliver