Screenwriting Course

Lesson 1 • Reading Scripts Analytically

Trains students to read produced screenplays as craft documents, identifying structural and stylistic choices. Active reading accelerates writing skill development.

Lesson 2 • Industry-Standard Script Format

Teaches slug lines, action lines, dialogue blocks, and transitions using professional formatting rules. Correct format signals professionalism to readers.

Lesson 3 • What Screenwriting Actually Is

Defines screenwriting as a visual-first, collaborative craft distinct from prose fiction. Establishes the writer's function within the production pipeline.

Lesson 1 • What Makes a Story Screenable

Identifies the qualities that make an idea viable for the screen: visual conflict, a protagonist with agency, and a clear dramatic question. Filters strong ideas from weak ones.

Lesson 2 • Crafting a Logline

Teaches the logline formula—protagonist, goal, obstacle, stakes—and how to stress-test it for clarity and marketability. A strong logline guides all subsequent writing.

Lesson 3 • Theme and Controlling Idea

Explains how a controlling idea unifies plot, character, and dialogue into a coherent argument. Students articulate their story's thematic spine before outlining.

Lesson 1 • Understanding the Spec Market

Explains how spec scripts function as writing samples and calling cards rather than guaranteed productions. Market awareness shapes which projects to write and how to position them.

Lesson 2 • Positioning and Comparable Titles

Teaches writers to articulate their script's position using comparable titles and genre-audience framing. Clear positioning accelerates industry conversations.

Lesson 3 • Major Genre Structures and Beats

Maps the specific structural beats of thriller, comedy, drama, horror, and action genres. Each genre has a unique emotional rhythm the writer must master.

Lesson 4 • Genre as a Creative Contract

Defines genre as a set of audience expectations the writer must fulfill, subvert, or transcend intentionally. Genre ignorance produces scripts that satisfy no one.

Lesson 1 • Key Structural Turning Points

Identifies plot points, midpoints, and pinch points as pivots that redirect story momentum. Placing these correctly maintains audience engagement across the script.

Lesson 2 • The Three-Act Paradigm

Breaks down setup, confrontation, and resolution as functional story phases, not arbitrary divisions. Understanding act function prevents structural collapse in drafts.

Lesson 3 • Alternative Story Structures

Surveys non-linear, episodic, and multi-protagonist structures and when they serve the story better than the classical model. Expands the writer's structural toolkit.

Lesson 4 • Sequences and Scene Groupings

Introduces the eight-sequence approach as a tool for managing mid-script momentum and avoiding act-two sag. Sequences give writers manageable structural targets.

Lesson 1 • Protagonist Design Principles

Defines the protagonist's role as the audience's primary point of identification and the engine of plot. Strong protagonist design makes every structural decision easier.

Lesson 2 • Character Voice and Distinctiveness

Develops techniques for giving each character a unique speech pattern, vocabulary, and worldview. Distinct voices prevent characters from sounding like the writer.

Lesson 3 • Antagonists and Opposition Forces

Frames the antagonist as the force that tests the protagonist's flaw and forces transformation. Strong opposition elevates every element of the script.

Lesson 4 • Character Arc and Transformation

Teaches positive, negative, and flat arcs and how transformation is expressed through behavior, not exposition. Arc must be earned through escalating story pressure.

Lesson 1 • Subtext and Dramatic Irony

Shows how characters saying one thing while meaning another creates tension and authenticity. Subtext is the gap between surface dialogue and underlying desire.

Lesson 2 • Scene Sequencing and Momentum

Examines how scene order, contrast, and pacing create narrative momentum across the script. Sequencing scenes strategically prevents reader fatigue.

Lesson 3 • Entering and Exiting Scenes

Teaches the rule of entering late and leaving early to maximize dramatic efficiency. Proper scene boundaries eliminate dead weight from the script.

Lesson 4 • Anatomy of an Effective Scene

Breaks down every scene into goal, conflict, and outcome, showing how each element drives the next. Scenes without conflict are cuts waiting to happen.

Lesson 1 • Writing Authentic Character Speech

Develops each character's idiolect—vocabulary, syntax, and rhythm—so dialogue reveals identity without description. Voice consistency builds audience trust.

Lesson 2 • Silence, Pauses, and Non-Verbal Beats

Explores how silence, interruption, and action beats within dialogue scenes create tension and meaning. What characters don't say is often more powerful.

Lesson 3 • Reading Dialogue Aloud and Revising

Establishes the read-aloud test as the primary diagnostic tool for dialogue problems. Ear-based revision catches issues that eye-based reading misses.

Lesson 4 • Exposition Through Dialogue

Teaches techniques for embedding necessary information in conflict-driven exchanges rather than info-dumps. Invisible exposition keeps the audience in the story.

Lesson 1 • Receiving and Using Feedback

Develops skills for soliciting, filtering, and applying notes from readers, executives, and collaborators. Not all feedback is equal; diagnosis matters more than prescription.

Lesson 2 • The First Draft Mindset

Reframes the first draft as a discovery document, not a finished product, to overcome perfectionism. Permission to write badly is the prerequisite for rewriting well.

Lesson 3 • Macro Revision: Story and Structure

Teaches top-down revision starting with story logic, structure, and character arc before touching prose. Fixing the wrong things first wastes revision effort.

Lesson 4 • Micro Revision: Scene and Line Level

Addresses scene-level and line-level revision after macro issues are resolved. Polishing prose before fixing structure is the most common rewriting mistake.