About |
An affordable, practical, online course for developing and writing great screenplays. Concise lessons and step-by-step exercises guide the writing process.
https://screenstory.org
What You’ll Learn
✓ How to generate strong story ideas.
✓ How to assess your ideas.
✓ How to create compelling characters.
✓ How to construct a solid structure.
✓ How to build gripping scenes.
✓ How to format your screenplay.
Course Overview
Develop and write a great screenplay with this affordable, practical, online screenwriting course. Concise step-by-step lessons and exercises guide your progress.
Module 1: Generate Strong Story Ideas
Most beginner writers struggle to find ideas strong enough to develop into a feature-length screenplay. This module’s lessons and exercises help you originate robust story ideas.
Lessons:
1. Choose Your Genre
2. Establish Your Story World
3. Define The Central Conflict
4. Sketch The Lead Character’s Arc
5. What If
6. Summaries & Loglines
Module 2: Assess Your Story Ideas
Here you’ll test your story ideas to see if they have the potential to become feature-length screenplays.
Lessons:
7. The Beginning & The End
8. Into The Unfamiliar
9. Midpoint Collision
10. The Final Showdown
11. Combine & Select
Module 3: Create Compelling Characters
By now, you’ll have created one or more characters. These lessons and exercises help you develop them and create new characters.
Lessons:
12. Character Types
13. Traits & Flaws
14. Lack & Compensation
15. Character Arcs
16. Character Profiles
Module 4: Develop A Solid Structure
It’s time to plot your screenplay using the three-act structure.
Lessons:
17. Classic Three-Act Structure
18. Subplots
19. Act 1 — The Usual Problems
20. Act 1 — The Inciting Incident
21. Act 1 — Roadblocks
22. Act 2 — Into The Unfamiliar
23. Act 2 — Enemies, Friends & New Rules
24. Act 2 — The Approach
25. Act 2 — Midpoint Collision
26. Act 2 — Celebration & Mourning
27. Act 2 — Acceleration
28. Act 3 — Crisis & Revelation
29. Act 3 — The Final Showdown
30. Act 3 — The End’s New Beginning
Module 5: Build Gripping Scenes
In this module, you’ll drill down to the structure of individual scenes and sequences. These approaches are designed to keep your audience always longing to know what happens next.
Lessons:
31. Scene Beginnings & Endings
32. Larger Scene Structure
33. Units Within Scenes
34. Full Plot Outline
Module 6: Screenplay Format
You’re almost ready to start writing your screenplay. Before you begin, you must understand how to use standard screenplay format.
Lessons:
35. General Formatting
36. Title Page
37. Scene Headings
38. Action Description & Transitions
39. Character Cues, Parentheticals, & Dialogue
Module 7: Write Your Screenplay
It’s finally time to write your screenplay. All the hard work from previous modules will help you complete the first draft. Be prepared to then do plenty of rewriting.
The last lesson briefly describes what to do when you’re done writing.
Lessons:
40. Writing & Rewriting
41. Your Rewrite Checklist
42. What To Do When You’re Done