The Game Has Changed

New technologies are radically changing the way we create, produce, distribute and consume screen stories — and the culture(s) in which all of that gets done.

Everyone is trying to figure out the new rules. Or making up their own.

And almost every screenwriting theory now in use was devised before the revolution.

Writing For Screens Is A Uniquely Frustrating And Difficult Art

Even without a chaotic zeitgeist…writing for screens is weird.

You’re creating something that other people will use to create something else.

You need a voice and a vision but you have no control.

You’re making a work of art for use in a ridiculously high-stakes business.

There Is No Formula For Success

I can’t tell you what to write, or what kind of screen to write for.

Every project is unique, every job has its own challenges, every artist has their own path.

What I offer is help understanding the choices, and tools to work toward the only part of the system within your control: being a better writer.

What You Need Are Questions

Whether you’re writing a three-act feature, working in a series room or making DIY webisodes, you use the same basic elements of dramatic narrative.

Once you know those, writing for screens is a process of asking questions.

That’s what I teach: the basic elements, the essential questions.

They are as simple as the notes of a musical scale, and as capable of infinite complexity and possibility. With them, you can do anything.

Process Is Just As Important As Form

It doesn’t help to know where all the plot points go in your script, if you can’t survive sitting down to write it.

Creative work makes special demands. Professional creative work makes even more. And no one in the “civilian” world really understands them. So no one teaches you how to be an artist…who works in a business.

Writing For Screens is about helping you developing a sustainable, productive process that works for you.