Go Into The Story Master Class in Paris

For any Europe-based GITS fans, I will be leading a three-day immersion in character driven screenwriting in Paris — March 20–22, 2019.

Please allow me to engage in some humble bragging and a pitch for Go Into The Story followers who live in Europe. First, the bragging:

• I have been a mentor and workshop leader at every single one of the Black List Feature Writer labs and mini-labs since 2013 — twelve in all.
• I have been a moderator, panelist, and presenter at four Austin Film Festivals.
• I have been a presenter, mentor, and master class lecturer at two London Screenwriters’ Festivals.
• I have been a presenter and mentor at two Willamette Writers Conferences.
• I have taught and mentored writers who have set up projects at major studios including Paramount, Warner Bros., Screen Gems, and Legendary Pictures, TV networks including ABC, AMC, HBO, and USA, signed with top agencies including CAA, The Gersh Agency, Paradigm, UTA, Verve, and WME, and managers including Circle of Confusion, Grandview, Lee Stobby, Madhouse Entertainment, Mosaic, and MXN Entertainment, as well as writing scripts which have made the annual Black List and writing-directing movies which have premiered at the Sundance Film Festival.
• In 2018, Go Into The Story was named the Best of the Best Scriptwriting Website by Writers Digest.
• I have been commissioned by Palgrave Macmillan, one of the oldest and most reputable academic publishing companies, to write a book: “The Protagonist’s Journey: Character Driven Screenwriting and Storytelling.”

All of this interest derives from the foundation of how I write and what I teach: Begin with character. End with character. Find the story in between.

Time for my pitch.

Now more than ever, the world needs writers who come from character. The old paradigms and formulas created by screenwriting ‘gurus’ in the 80s and 90s are dinosaurs. With the advent of streaming services and the globalization of movies and television, everything is changing. One thing is constant:

The emotional connection viewers feel with complex, multilayered characters.

The days of reducing screenplay structure to plot are gone. Focusing on having this happen on that page and that happen on this page is not only the path to formulaic writing, it does a gross disservice to what a screenplay has the potential to be…

A living, breathing, vibrant STORY.

And the single best way to achieve that is to immerse yourself in the lives of your characters.

After all, it’s their story. They know it best.

That is the essence of what I’ve been ‘preaching’ on my blog for over a decade and what I’ve been teaching in venues such as the ones cited above.

And now, a new venue.

From March 20 through March 22, 2019, I will be leading a three-day master class in Paris in partnership with La Guilde Francaise des Scénaristes: Go Into The Story: The Art of Character Driven Writing.

This is what participants will study:

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, writers will have learned the foundations of character driven writing and a practical approach to story prep which they can adopt and adapt for all future writing projects.

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.