Saturday Hot Links

Screenwriting Master Class tip of the week: Let’s face it: Rewriting is a bitch. Or a bastard. Pick your gender specific invective. Doesn’t matter. The process is a pain no matter how you shake your fist and swear at it.

One big issue I’ve found with writers caught up in the maelstrom of rewriting is that there is no one surefire path to success. This stands to reason. Stories are organic and so a certain amount of rewriting them involves wallowing in the wilderness. That’s just the nature of things.

However I have an approach which I honestly believe can move your process forward in a big way. It’s one I use in the Pages II: Rewriting Your Script workshop, a 10-week class that guides you through a rewrite.

In this workshop, you will not only drill down into your story and understand it more clearly, if you do the work, you will get from FADE IN to FADE OUT on your next draft, and move you script toward the point you can bring it to market.

Here is an overview of the approach employed in Pages II: Rewriting Your Script:

* The first four weeks, it’s about assessing your current draft, identifying problems as well as content that works, brainstorming solutions, then working up a revision outline.

* The next four weeks, it’s knocking out your draft in quarters: Week 5 — Act One. Week 6 — The first half of Act Two. Week 7 — The second half of Act Two. Week 8 — Act Three.

* The last two weeks: Polish and Edit.

There are 10 lectures that provide prompts and tips to steer you through the rewrite, weekly due dates to compel you to do the work, and a workshop environment in which you receive constructive critiques from your fellow writers along with detailed feedback from myself, a combination of written feedback and teleconferences.

Here is a testimonial from a Aarthi Jayaraman, a writer who has gone through the Pages II experience:

Working with Scott at Screenwriting Master Class is an invaluable experience for both novice writers struggling to learn the ropes and advanced writers in need of direction. Aside from Scott’s lectures, tips and exercises being both practical and thought-provoking, the online workshop experience is a must for all screenwriters breaking into the business to learn from the feedback of Scott, an established storytelling master as well as others. Ever since taking his classes, my own ability and confidence as a screenwriter have blossomed and brought my writing goals and ambitions closer than ever. Also, having read almost every screenwriting book out there, none can hold a penny to Scott’s approach of story driven by character, which can not only have you confident in your writing abilities, but can also solve the worst case of writers block (as it did for me). I feel incredibly lucky to have had this opportunity with Scott.

I do not subscribe to the belief there is one approach to writing… or rewriting. Every writer is different. Every story is different. But I do know this: The process we use in Pages II has helped many, many writers solve major story issues, discover important story keys, and enable them to take their script to the next level.

If you have a script that is a complete draft, but you know needs work…

Or a partially completed draft where you got stuck and couldn’t find your way out…

Or a story you’ve rewritten multiple times, yet feel it just doesn’t work…

I encourage you to consider joining me in my upcoming Rewriting Your Script workshop.

For more information, go here.

I look forward to the opportunity to work with you!

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