Saturday Hot Links

Screenwriting Master Class tip of the week: When Tom Benedek and I launched SMC about almost 3 years ago, I had it in my mind to explore a different way of looking at the craft, what I call character based screenwriting. Over the course of several months, I wrote nearly 300 pages exploring eight subjects: Plot, Concept, Character, Style, Dialogue, Scene, Theme, and Time, each with 6 ‘lectures,’ essentially chapters in an online interactive book. Together they represent a holistic approach, every subject based on my belief in the importance of starting the entire story-crafting process with the characters, focusing on them throughout, and discovering the narrative structure through the revelations they unveil to us as we work with them. The way I see it, this approach offers an alternative to the conventional take on screenwriting which all too often leads to formulaic scripts.

I offer each of the Core classes as a 1-week online course, so writers may pick and choose areas of particular interest, and that’s completely fine. If you want to learn a frame of mind and some tips to pump up your approach to screenwriting style, Core IV offers a thought-provoking way to do that. Or if you’ve never quite grasped what theme is or how it can help enrich your writing, Core VII presents a clear take along with a comprehensive immersion into many aspects of the subject. In fact, each Core class is an entree into what I think is a unique take on these critical aspects of the craft.

However I crafted these classes to be part of a whole which is why I began offering The Core Package, whereby a writer could enroll in all eight courses at nearly a 50% savings. Moreover by signing up, you have the flexibility to go through the content at your own pace: download and read the material whenever you want, send me optional writing exercises to put theory into practice, up to a year to take in everything. You can also take the live 1-week classes, enabling you to share ideas with other writers, workshop some of your own original stories, and participate in a weekly group teleconferences hosted by me.

The response this year to The Core Package has been extremely strong and I can tell from the emails I have received as well as responses on the course site that participants have benefited in a big way from the experience.

We are just now wrapping up the fourth Core class of this cycle which means there are still 4 more to run this year [I only offer Core classes once annually]. Why not consider enrolling in The Core Package now? You will have access to each of the first four Core class sites, plus the opportunity to go through Core V-VIII: Dialogue, Scene, Theme, Time in real time.

So if you like what you read on the blog and my basic take on the craft, and you feel like you could use a coherent, comprehensive approach to screenwriting theory, one grounded in decades of experience as a screenwriter and educator, go here and check out The Core Package.

I look forward to the opportunity to work with you!

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