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TEN MONTH NOVEL & SCRIPT COURSE: FIRST DRAFT - ONLINE Pre-requisite
- Unlocking Creativity Course Online. Unlocking
Creativity provides
students with the essential tools and techniques for learning to access
their imagination and write in such a way that readers will feel connected
to their characters and story. It
will dramatically improve the student’s writing and his or her ability
to work creatively with story structure in the longer course. Ninety per cent of novels and screenplays are rejected because of poor structure.You will learn about story structure in detail and how character and structure are two sides of the same coin. You will follow a step by step process to apply structural tools and techniques to your particular story so that you come up with the best possible first draft you are capable of writing. You do not have to come to class with a clear idea for a story. In fact, 90% of writers who do this course have no idea what they want to write about. But they embark on the course as they feel deep down they have something to say. They are just not sure how to get it out. The Writers' Studio will take you through a process which will enable you to explore, clarify and focus your story. The one you want to write. One that will motivate, inspire and excite you during the writing process and give you the best chance of professional success. Writing your novel or screenplay is an adventure, a guided dance between your imagination and story structure. This is the art and craft of storytelling. COURSE
STRUCTURE Part One - Finding your story. Finding the story you want to write about is a matter of asking the right questions.You will work through a series of exercises, answer questions, write scenes and post them on the internet and receive feedback, learn how to structure scenes, explore your characters and put them in a variety of dramatic scenarios. By the end of the process you will have come up with a broad ten-step outline, which you will work through, and get feedback on, from your tutor. This is so you know you have found the story you want to write and it has the structural legs to go the distance of a first draft. This outline may change in the actual writing of your first draft. We recommend you spend no more than 4 to 6 weeks on Part One. Part Two - Writing the first draft You will then go back to the beginning of your story and write it following a step-by-step process to ensure you complete your story in ten months. You will work your way through eight Turning Points and twenty-nine Story Steps, each of which are broken into between three and seven scenes. The scene breakdowns make sure your story is on track and builds dramatically. It also helps you develop a sense of pacing and tension. We work from the big picture view, the Turning Points and work our way down to the chicken view, writing the scenes. You will work through the Story Steps one at a time. Your story will most likely be made up of between 150 and 200 scenes. During each Story Step you will answer structural questions that will help you develop your character and your story. You will have all your scene breakdowns checked with your tutor before you write them. You will post one scene a week for feedback. By the end of the process you will have written a strong first draft.
• Find the story you want to write and come up with a ten step outline before you start writing the first draft of your novel or screenplay. This way you know that you are writing a story that you want to write and that your story is structurally sound and will go the distance. • Follow a step by step process to ensure you complete your story in ten months. If you want to write a novel or screenplay successfully you need a process to ensure you work efficiently, effectively and methodically. This allows you to realise your full creative potential. • Use our unique interactive story telling technology so you can be guided and coached every step of the way. This will keep you and your story on track. • Use scene templates to build internal and external conflict into every scene. This way every scene works dramatically and is integrated into the overall story structure. • Learn how to draw readers into your fictional world and keep them there. You need to build the world of your story so that you create a fictional dream in the mind of your readers. • Create compelling characters who go on a dramatic journey of change. Character and structure are the opposite side of the same coin. One exists to reveal the other. When you learn how to detail the structure of your story, your characters will come to life. • Learn the underlying dynamics of story telling. Including, ghost, prison, stakes, inciting incident, desire, four point opposition, obsessive drive, progressive complications, moral dilemma, mid-point, wasteland and surrender. • Apply the eight turning points to your story to make sure your story works on an archetypal level. This will make your story resonate at a deep psychic level with the reader. • Work through the 29 story steps to ensure you take your character on a profound and dramatic journey of change. This detailed structure systematically links the action of your story with the character journey so that it builds in a dramatic and compelling way. • Use scene sequencing techniques to build dramatic tension and character growth organically. This makes sure the pacing is dramatic and appropriate to where you are in your story and the character development is believable. • Learn how to harness the power of your imagination, while grounding your story in a structure that works. This allows you to harness your creativity while keeping the story alive for writer and reader. TELECONFERENCING CALLS The online course also includes regular optional teleconferencing calls to keep you motivated and accountable and to ensure you and your story are on track. There are also regular opportunities to speak with your tutor on the phone. YOU CAN MOVE AT YOUR OWN PACE Even though this is a ten month course, you can move at your own pace, depending on how much time available. We have had people work on the course full time and finish it in three months. However, you do only have ten months to finish the course, with the proviso that you can take up two months break if you give us two weeks notice in writing. We insist on this because it is in your best interests as a writer to get the first draft done in this time and move on. Firstly, the aim is not to write a perfect first draft, but to find and develop your story. It is much better to come back and fine tune it later. Secondly, you need to develop a writing habit, whereby you are writing five scenes a week. It is not a huge time commitment (roughly 30 minutes a day four to five times a week), but you do need to be consistent. As Ernest Hemingway said to Scott Fitzgerald, "The important thing about a first draft is finishing the damn thing." WHAT YOU NEED To
do the course online, you need to have access to a computer and to the
internet. All course materials are online and can be used directly, or
downloaded, from the computer. For more information please contact our administrator and office manager, Kathleen Allen. She will be very happy to arrange an appointment or phone consultation with Roland Fishman.
To see a slideshow overview of the course click slideshow. You can adjust to fit your screen and how you view it. Click
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