Character Development Keys

Starting June 23rd, my one-week online class not only immerses you in five key archetypes, you also use them to workshop one of your stories.

And the course is on sale!

My book The Protagonist’s Journey: An Introduction to Character-Driven Screenwriting and Storytelling has nearly 40 endorsements from professional screenwriters, novelists, and academics. Here are excerpts from just a few:

“Myers illuminates a core principle of writing for the screen: All story rises from character.” — Robin Swicord, Little Women, Memoirs of a Geisha, When They See Us

“Regardless of the genre, budget, or style of the film — character is everything. It is the bedrock of all drama, laughter, love, passion, and loss. Scott’s book is an indispensable tool for unlocking scripts through character and a great resource for any screenwriter.” — Lisa Joy, Westworld, Reminiscence, Fallout

“Finally, there is a screenwriting book that focuses on the most important and most overlooked element of good storytelling. The characters really are everything. The Protagonist’s Journey gives you the tools to craft emotional, character-driven stories that are the bread and butter of any professional screenwriter. — Stephany Folsom, Toy Story 4, Paper Girls, The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power.

One of the primary reasons so many writers have responded to The Protagonist’s Journey is its focus on character development and enabling the characters to drive the story-crafting process.

Part II of the book is titled: The Protagonist’s Journey as Family of Characters. It explores a theory I have developed over time about the recurring presence of five primary character archetypes. Here’s your chance to dig into this material with the one-week online Screenwriting Master Class course: Character Development Keys.

My mantra is this: Begin with characters. End with characters. Find the story in between. As per the old adage, Character should equal Plot because it’s their story. By immersing ourselves in the lives of our characters and determining the nature of their interrelationships as well as their respective narrative functions, we can create a character map along the lines of the one above which informs the crafting of your story’s structure.

This process lies at the heart of Character Development Keys, a one-week online class which begins Monday, June 23. There are seven lectures written by yours truly:

1: Character Archetypes and Story Structure
2: Protagonist
3: Nemesis
4: Attractor
5: Mentor
6: Trickster
7: Switch Protagonist

The study script for the course: The Dark Knight, screenplay by Jonathan Nolan & Christopher Nolan, story by Christopher Nolan and David S. Goyer, based on characters created by Bob Kane.

If you’re a fan of The Dark Knight trilogy, that alone is probably reason enough to take this class because you will understand the films in a whole new way, through the lens of character archetypes.

In addition, you will get the opportunity to put the theories you learn into action by workshopping one of your own stories.

And as a bonus: I’ll be presenting a set of character development tools I have assembled over the years to help you dig into characters even further to uncover their unique personalities and voice including: questionnaires, biographies, monologues, interviews, sit-downs, secondary character archetypes, and much more.

This is a great chance to delve into what I consider to be one of the most fascinating and helpful ways of approaching character development and indeed, the story-crafting process as a whole: character archetypes.

All of that in only 1-week beginning Monday, June 23.

Take advantage of the benefits of online classes where you do pretty much everything on your own time schedule: download and read lectures, review and post comments on the public forums, upload ideas and optional writing exercises. You want to do that in bed in your pajamas sipping coffee? Devouring chocolate bon bons? Be my guest!

There is one teleconference which is live, but I record and upload that, so you can even check that out on your own time, too.

Who should take this course?

Screenwriters, TV writers, novelists, playwrights, and anyone interested in learning tools to dig into their characters and make their stories come alive.

For more information, go here.

Plus there’s this: This one-week online course is on sale! Regular price: $95. Sale price: $49!

Even a better deal: The Craft Package! For nearly 60% off, you can gain immediate access to the entire content of all 10 Craft classes as well as automatic enrollment in each one-week Craft course.

Check out the Craft Package here.

“Every movie lives or dies by their characters and no one understands that better than Scott. The Protagonist’s Journey: An Introduction to Character-Driven Screenwriting and Storytelling is required reading. The perfect torch to navigate the dark abyss that is crafting a screenplay. A masterclass.” — David Guggenheim, Safe House, Designated Survivor

As always, I look forward to the opportunity to work with you!