Go Into The Story: Character Driven Screenwriting Workshop

Go Into The Story: Character Driven Writing Workshop

I am excited to announce a three-day writing master class in Paris, France, March 20–22, 2019 in partnership with La Guilde Francaise des Scénaristes.

All too often, studios, networks, producers, and financiers are flooded with formulaic script submissions. Stories are so much more than this plot point happening at that page number. As screenwriter David Seltzer (The Omen, Punchline) says, “If you go in with formula, you come out with formula.”

The single best way to avoid formulaic writing is to tap into the lives of a story’s characters and follow them into and through the story-crafting process. As this writing mantra:

Begin with character. End with character. Find the story in between.

That is the guiding principle of this three-day Go Into The Story writing class. It is the characters who live in their story universe. It is their backstories and destinies, their wants and needs which provide the raw material out of which the narrative emerges.

This is what you will study in this writing course: An immersion in character driven screenwriting and storytelling.

Day One — March 20, 2019
The Protagonist’s Journey as Metamorphosis

Due to their central role in the narrative, engaging the Protagonist is the most important aspect of the story-crafting process. In our first session, we will study:

• The primacy of the Protagonist character
• Protagonist metamorphosis
• Metamorphosis arcs (e.g., Positive, Negative, Refusal to Change, Change Agent)
• Screenplay universe: Plotline (External World) and Themeline (Internal World)
• How events in the Plotline support the Protagonist’s metamorphosis
• Disunity: The Protagonist’s beginning state disrupted by the Call to Adventure
• Deconstruction: New World trials which test the Protagonist’s Old Ways of Being
• Reconstruction: The Protagonist connects with untapped inner potential
• Unity: The Protagonist’s metamorphosis moves toward a state of wholeness
• Four Themeline Movements: Inactive, Reactive, Proactive, Coactive
• The endless variety of metamorphosis journeys
• Carl Jung’s theory of individuation and the Protagonist’s journey

Day Two — March 21, 2019
The Protagonist’s Journey as Family of Characters

Five narrative dynamics common to movies and television represented by these archetypes: Protagonist, Nemesis, Attractor, Mentor, Trickster. In our second session, we will study:

• Primary Character Archetypes
• The Protagonist’s Family of Characters
• Nemesis: Conflict created through opposition to the Protagonist
• Attractor: Connection with the Protagonist’s emotional development
• Mentor: Connection with the Protagonist’s intellectual development
• Trickster: Shapeshifter tests the will of the Protagonist
• Subplot = Relationship, mini-stories which service the Protagonist’s journey
• Character map: The structure of the Protagonist’s relationships with key characters

Day Three — March 22, 2019
The Protagonist’s Journey as Narrative Imperative

By immersing ourselves in the lives of our characters — and especially the Protagonist — we discover the story’s structure. In our third session, we study:

• A Proven Professional Approach to Breaking Story
• Protagonist Character Treatment: Seven Essential Questions
• Brainstorming: Six Character and Story Development Exercises
• Finding the Spine: Four Primary Plotline Points
• Psychological Journey: Four Themeline Movements
• From Spine to Backbones: Ten Major Plotline Points
• Narrative Throughline: Scene By Scene Outline
• Writing Strategies: First Draft and Beyond
• Narrative Imperative: The Inevitable Protagonist’s Path

After this three-day session, you will have learned the foundations of character driven writing and a practical approach to story prep which you can adopt and adapt for all your future writing projects.

The content we will be covering is the essence of what I am writing as a book commissioned by noted publishing company Palgrave Macmillan.

If you live in Europe or know someone who does, this is a great opportunity to learn how to Go Into The Story and discover how Character Drives Plot.

For more information, go here.