2019 Willamette Writers Conference

My schedule at the Portland, Oregon event August 2–4.

I’ve been invited back to the 50th annual Willamette Writers Conference in Portland, Oregon for my third year in a row. I’ve had a great time there (you can read about my 2017 experience here including three takeaways for writers). This year, I’ll be doing four presentations:

Fri, August 2 / 1:30 PM — 3:00 PM
The Protagonist’s Journey Part 1: Metamorphosis

Take a deep dive into why the Protagonist is so critical to the story-crafting process. In this workshop, we’ll explore both the character’s Physical Journey (External World) and Psychological Journey (Internal World), and the synergy between them; examine a variety of transformation arcs; and break down the positive metamorphosis arc, the most popular one in movies and TV (Disunity — Deconstruction — Reconstruction — Unity).

Fri, August 2 / 3:45 PM — 4:45 PM
The Protagonist’s Journey Part 2: The Family of Characters

After having established a strong foundation of understanding the central role of the Protagonist in a story in our first session, we’ll immerse ourselves in the five character archetypes common to most movies and TV series: Protagonist, Nemesis, Attractor, Mentor, Trickster. Scott Myers will discuss how each character is tied to the Protagonist in both the Physical and Psychological realms, and how writers can create a family of characters each tied to and servicing the Protagonist’s metamorphosis journey.

Sat, August 3 / 1:30 PM — 3:00 PM
Scene Description Spotlight: Using Screenplay Style to Express Your Voice

Movies and TV are primarily visual mediums, which means most of what we write in a script is scene description. Ironically one of Hollywood’s dirty little secrets is that people who read scripts for a living basically loathe scene description. Why? Because it slows down the read — all that text with its wide margins. However, scene description is much more than establishing a scene’s physical setting, indeed it is an extension of your writing voice and key to a script being a ‘good read’.

Sun, August 4 / 10:30 AM — 11:45 AM
Pixar and the Craft of Storytelling

Pixar Studios is the most successful filmmaking group in the history of Hollywood. The biggest key to their success? Their understanding of and commitment to story. Along with Scott Myers, study key narrative dynamics present in Pixar films including Special Subculture, Separation, Sires and Siblings, Strange Sojourners, Substantial Saga/Small Story, and more.

I will also be doing a Q&A with keynote guest Peter Craig whose screenwriting credits include The Town, The Hunger Games, 12 Strong, and the upcoming films Top Gun: Maverick and Bad Boys 3.

You can go here to check out the entire schedule. Many great writers and speakers at the event.

If you’re up in the Pacific Northwest, I hope to see you there!

For more information this year’s Willamette Writers Conference, go here.

Twitter: @wilwrite.