I hope you’re all safe and warm!
Advanced Rewriting: The Screenplay in Six Weeks
This week I met with my Rewriting The Screenplay in Six Weeks class, and each student had done a great job of improving their stories. I have a way of teaching rewriting that allows each writer to understand what’s good about their first draft and improve on that in a focused, organized way. The result will be a second draft that is ready to be polished. Screenplays and TV scripts aren’t novels, they’re blueprints for a work of art that will exist in another medium, so the use of language and intention is different. Time is of the essence, so getting a script done within six months is ideal.
Here’s a tip: Begin your rewrite by considering the time of the story, and the “frame” that would best “hold” it. Should the story just go from beginning to end or does it need to be told from the end backward? Would narration and/or flashbacks improve the flow? This is critical because good writing is rewriting so before beginning a revision it’s vital to get the shape of the story correct!
Write to the Core: A 17 Minute a Day Practice
This webinar was so much fun, and over 700 people registered! I reviewed the Word of the Day techniques, and the group was able to do a round of clustering that led to some great moments of clarity. The webinar will be available on the Celtx website next week.
There is great scriptwriting software, much easier to use than many others, and good free information on the website too.
Using Voice to Mesmerize Your Readers
Wednesday at noon, I was with CELTX, and at 7:00 pm EST that evening, I held the Word the Day webinar on Using Voice to Mesmerize Your Readers. The big takeaways were that the way time is expressed is different in screenwriting and that you must add a specific kind of structure to compensate for the lack of Point of View (first, second, third person)when writing a script. If this sounds like what I’m teaching in my Advanced Rewriting class, you’re correct.
The Word of the Day
As a result of the WOTD technique and to support my fellow writers, I will hold a bi-weekly “writer’s room,” where writers can bring their story problems and use Word of the Day to solve them. Our first WOTD webinar will be held on February 9, 2022, from 7:00-8:15 pm EST.
Hope to see you there!
Here’s to your successful writing,
Professor Marilyn Horowitz
