The Bullet Essay format illustrated how putting together a series of single sentences can coax out what’s in a writer’s mind to cultivate an actual story.
You Can Read Here About The Bullet Essay
Feel free to let us know how you’re doing and any personal or professional highlights. If you send in an update, JG will send you, for your personal use, a copy of the recently revised Basic Training Workbook as a thank you. You can access the update survey at this link: Alumni Update
]]>What’s This Note All About: We’re having a New York Alumni Contest with a short deadline of Monday, February 22nd. It might take you 15 minutes to a half hour to participate because we’re only looking for short essays limited to a specific format of not more than seven sentences. You’re certainly free to spend more time perfecting your submission.
The format is a Writers Boot Camp exercise called a Bullet Essay. This contest is a creative outlet and three New York alumni will be awarded full $2500 scholarships to the 12-Week March 8th Basic Training done via zoom.
You Can Read Here About The Bullet Essay
The theme of the Bullet Essay Contest is “Will The City Be The City Again?” Instead of general New York Stories we’re looking for reflections on whether New York will make a comeback and full recovery after the pandemic, socially and creatively. Will it return to its bustle and muscle?
Early last spring, the rest of the country watched Governor Cuomo’s daily briefings and learned what we would all soon face. It was scary and important insight was gained to brace for what was to come in other regions. All the while, with views of a nearly vacant Times Square and all the great hotspots–the restaurants and bars–being shut down, anyone who’s spent time in the City could feel the sadness, of session, and a sense of instantaneous nostalgia.
Without being futuristic per se, we’d like to hear your easy riffs with story potential. The initial sentence might be a segue to a topic, like the chit chat in a meeting to discuss a project. Consider writing about what you expect may happen in Manhattan, what changes may manifest, what kind of recovery will be realized and what you think the City will become in the near future. Again, we’re not necessarily looking for a dystopian view but certainly a personal one, in whatever form, ideally one that expresses hope and vision.
Here are a few areas of possible emphasis to create a ramp for a story:
–Set a scenario in a neighborhood bar or restaurant. The amazing part of living or spending time in New York is how a happening can be defined as a spontaneous encounter.
–Your essay can be about the indigenous manner of the character and character types of the City. You can focus on the story of an unexpected comeback, from livelihood lost to opportunity found.
–You might write about how the lost year can be made up, whether a teenager missing a year of social life, or an older person who had been ready to start up their social life again, only to be stopped cold by reality.
–Is there a different take on romance due to the pandemic and new normalcy gained in the aftermath of the lockdown, perhaps a penpalship extended, a friendship more intimate?
–High rents in the City have always tested whether artists could survive and now it’s way out of control, yet the artists made grittier neighborhoods hip and cool, only to then see rising values make them less gritty, maybe even less cool, yet still gradually pushing them out, a cruel irony.
The New York “Bullet Essay” Contest is another way for us to give back and say thanks to our alumni. If you participate by submitting the short seven-sentence exercise described below, you’ll be eligible for one of three full scholarship awards for the Monday, March 8th Basic Training, the 12-Week process conducted by founder Jeffrey Gordon (JG). Since early 2020, Basic Training expanded from seven weeks to 12 weeks so that it includes a first draft, plus two rewrites.
]]>Managing and prioritizing your time turns your weekly schedule into an actual calendar, your personal Creative Calendar. Some people have remarkable fortitude to take advantage of the holidays to be productive, yet the downtime can often foster a less proactive mind-set and can require all of January to get back on track, as the industry tends to take some weeks to regain momentum. (This year, political events like the Georgia run-offs, the attack on the Capitol and the Presidential Inauguration may have become a preoccupation for some writers and filmmakers stuck at home in front of their television during the ongoing pandemic.) The disruption of the feature film business and the expanding opportunities in streaming television have made business cycles less predictable and that lack of structure can also affect individual productivity.
Regardless of these external business cycles, our Pro Members will write at least 400-500 hours this year on just a part-time basis (10 hours per week) while maintaining active day jobs. That commitment level translates to the equivalent of two fully developed feature film scripts or three TV pilots with bibles, or a greater number of shorter-form projects.
If You’d Like to Know More About Creative Calendar
If you multiply 24 hours per day by seven days a week, there are 168 hours each week. After 50 hours of a typical day job and 50 hours of sleep (for most of us mortals), that leaves less than 70 hours from which to accomplish all of the other chores and wonders of daily life–as well as commit 10 hours toward your writing goals during the transition toward writing as day job.
The Creative Calendar material is relevant for anyone in the entertainment business, whether creative artist, actor, producer, filmmaker or executive, with an emphasis on 10 hours per week on the practice of writing or developing projects. As you know, only through consistent productivity can you scale the learning curve of the creative process and then ultimately lead yourself to career relevance.
]]>Writers Boot Camp congratulates Ms. Shara Davis, Ms. Kimba Henderson and Ms. Adrienne Kenton on winning the three awards in the African American Perspectives Fellowship–$2500 Writers Boot Camp scholarships for the Thursday, October 22nd Basic Training.
Ms. Shara Davis has an MFA in Creative Writing and a collection of short stories in the works. Born and raised in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, she can trace her family’s arrival to America as slaves. Working nearly a decade as a public defender and criminal defense investigator for prisoners on death row, she has examined many aspects of her identity, life experiences with fellow African Americans and the trauma of the criminal justice system. Her project Doing Time is a television pilot and potential novel about an inmate serving a life sentence and reflecting on the choices made by his younger self.
Ms. Kimba Henderson is a graduate of NYU, Tisch program of the Arts and a full-time writer for the past six years in true crime television and docuseries, feature film and audio narrative. Among her informing experiences as a child was the disheartening experience of trying to find and buy an African-American doll for Christmas in a huge toy store. Her TV Pilot for a limited series is Red Harlem about four African-American actors in New York during the Great Depression, who are cast in a Communist Party propaganda film.
Ms. Adrienne Kenton has an accomplished background in production and is re-launching her career after many years as a stay-at-home mom. With two bi-racial children, she is balancing her livelihood priorities with their distance learning, along with her concern and focus on re-framing narratives of Blackness to counteract negative labels. Her story HARVESTING GOLD has strong crossover potential in film and TV, depicting an enslaved girl on a magical plantation set in an alternate history of America’s founding.
]]>Writers Boot Camp uses the term “conceit” to describe a specific approach to the content of your movie, television show or web series that distinguishes it from others, especially in the case of material or subject matter that may be similar. More advanced than a component or story decision, a conceit addresses and describes the audience experience of your story. It’s a writing tool and also a tool for collaboration with the team of developers and filmmakers.
A conceit is an approach to a story component, or combination of components, rather than the component itself. In its broadest expression, it’s a phrase or notion that points to a unique layer of material in the project. In more practical terms, a conceit is a statement, a single-sentence description of that unique approach that includes words and phrases to express the combination of components and ingredients that form the DNA of the project. A conceit statement is in effect a title of a list of setpieces that illustrates the script’s entertainment concept, which in turn represents the primary layer of material that will ultimately attract an audience.
Character Conceit Versus Story Conceit
There are two major kinds of conceits: Character Conceit and Story Conceit. If you don’t like the word conceit, then replace it with the word unique. Character Conceit describes an elevating approach to a character. Beyond misbehavior, which enhances development by activating character and connecting theme to story, a Character Conceit combines a handful of traits (usually, at least five or six) to portray a character we’ve never seen before. Character Conceit is about unique personality, not what a character does but how they appear and engage others uniquely. While some characteristics will imply action, the conceit statement is created by listing a package of traits, including misbehavior, accents, appearance, modes of dress, disabilities, special skills, etc.
A Story Conceit, on the other hand, is based on a source of unique action, often found in a detail of action not seen before. A Story Conceit is about what a character does, who they do it with and the nature of related encounters throughout the story. A Story Conceit can be a different spin on a situation or adventure, a fresh take on a story paradigm, the special nature of the dynamic relationship or rivalry with the opponent, a look behind the scenes of an arena or social strata or, in rare cases, a twist or surprise ending. In most cases, storytelling method is not a Story Conceit in that arranging story is simply accessing elements of the medium and not compelling enough on its own to be the primary driver of an audience experience.
Often, the challenge of creating and defining conceits is like splitting the atom. Many conceits may overlap at first glance. For example, it may be difficult to separate behavior from action. That’s a good problem to have. In fact, so few A-list writers create entirely fresh characters and therefore a new writer can inspire a sense in the script reader that they are a more skilled and intentional writer through a Character Conceit due to the energy evoked on the page whenever that character appears.
Whether you can nail the words in the Conceit Statement, the setpieces on the page are more important than the exercise. Still, the goal is to use the conceit to empower your development process. The more you work toward stronger descriptions, like our process of compacting and enhancing Premise Lines, the more effectively you will also pay off the approach by consciously integrating the project DNA into lines of scene direction and line of dialogue, which is where concept and scene work intersect.
Your Conceit Goals
If you have only one conceit, then the silver lining in a difficult industry is that your project can be justified by having at least one unique source of entertainment. Few projects require more than two conceits. In fact, depending on the inspiration for your script and the particular circumstances of your story, one Character Conceit and one Story Conceit could represent plenty of source material. The distinction lies between sources of material and fresh sources. The story components are each important sources of scene ideas, but conceits are the fresh sources of material that make or break your project.
Be economical in your description of each conceit, as you would in your Premise Line. If you find that you have multiple conceits, test each one to find if it really belongs as a sub-category of another. Combine them when possible to discover a more particular way of phrasing it, like a flashlight in the dark, or better, a particular food aisle in a grocery store.
Again, some story ideas carry more energy due to a quirkier nature of their origin. This isn’t an exact science. In general, story is content is component. Style is approach is conceit. What happens is content, how it happens is conceit. Imagine watching a sporting event with only one announcer doing play-by-play. If the camera is anywhere near the action, then the announcer is redundant to what can be seen. It’s the color commentator that elevates the significance of the detail being pointed out and brings an overlay to the experience.
Even when you feel that you’ve defined your conceits, think again. It’s easy to fall into a trap of complacency. While all of these tools are designed to help you decide how your story works, conceit as we use the term, is also requiring that the approach has not been seen before. For example, you may know that the main character is trying to cross the country to get home. That would represent priority scene source and a high percentage of the journey of the story (screen time). That would say a lot about how the script works and empower you to write it. But it might not yet represent a conceit, a fresh version of a cross country trek (road trip).
Once you clarify the story components, the next step is to question the way you tell your story. What do you personally bring to the story? What is your particular treatment of the subject? How is your idea entertaining? How do the other elements of the medium interplay? What is the source of your inspiration? In other words, what is your vision?
Beyond Misbehavior: Character Conceits Misbehavior is a huge step above ordinary action, action without thematic significance. In addition to its role as a defining building block, it empowers a writer to activate each scene. When characters interact with each other based on their individual misbehavior’s the story moves forward more organically.
In the hierarchy of conceits character is supreme because we remember great characters. Even soft scripts that never make it to market may stand out through character conceits.
A Character Conceit is developed from the integration and awareness of all of the qualities of that person, a package of traits. This package or persona includes windows, misbehaviors, affectations, accents and disabilities. These things are mostly what we can see.
While it’s true that what someone does determines who he is–action conveys intention, integrity, spirituality–character activity is not always enough to overcome the challenge of creating entertaining and fresh material. Action without thematic consequences or metaphorical relevance is often the equivalent of simple plot which, unless heightened with high production value, rarely elevates to significant dramatic levels.
Acting is a license to misbehave. The range of detailed character disposition and emotion is what connects the star to a role and the role to the audience. But action and its evolved descendant misbehavior pale to the task of creating a unique persona. Character Conceit, your approach to a role rather than the content of it, is about developing a unique persona and a potential franchise character. Again, a memorable character whose way of interacting and engaging an audience, therefore engaging our attention, is truly attracting to name actors and their handlers.
See your work of creating unique characters as Special Affects, an obvious take-off on the traditionally technological term special effects. While a conceit may be as simple as a device setting it apart from other stories, your ability to connect the person in the story to the action will elevate your material from the norm. The moments may stem from the length of the character’s journey, or a ticking clock, or the material associated with the arena of the story. It can be the way you inform, or tease, or purposefully engage the audience. This process is often one of making decisions by degrees.
Understanding conceits is the key to proving your concepts and developing better scripts. Once you establish your project’s conceits, the main task of development is to populate the structure of the story with special moments. A setpiece is simply a window that carries the special intention of your conceit and then testing that the actions of the characters are organic to who they are and the details of the story.
Remember that it is redundant to call a conceit fresh. A conceit is an approach you take to a project, or a component of a project, that provides many setpieces (entertaining moments) that haven’t been done quite that way before. A character conceit, though perhaps owing to an archetype in the legacy of dramatic material, is an individual whose persona is particularly engaging.
It’s NOT a requirement that your project have a character conceit, though a memorable character may personalize your writing and create casting possibilities in the minds of those who could determine the fate of your script. If you have a Character Conceit as well as a Story Conceit, then you’re in an upper percentile of creative people in the business.
Main Character Misbehavior
Misbehavior is a term used to get close to the essence of what makes movie and TV characters accessible. A descendant and enhancement of the industry term character arc–character change over the session of a story–misbehavior is a tool for activating characters and connecting action to the ground wire of thematic resonance. We refer to Misbehavior applied to the Main Character, who represents the spine of the story, as Building Block Misbehavior because it operates as the cornerstone from which all thematic material is sourced. While a very unique, proprietary Writers Boot Camp invention and term, misbehavior will not only activate your characters but also help you fully develop them in relation to the context of the story.
Full Development Phillosophy
Based on an expedient first-draft process, including emphasis on developing tools like the Unity Page, the 3-6-3, the Horizontal and brainstorming of setpieces, Writers Boot Camp estimates that a feature-length script can be readable by industry standards within six months, working at a part-time pace of ten hours per week.* The ratio of tools work versus writing during the first-draft stage would be 80% tools and 20% writing. Once the tools have been established, then the subsequent rewriting stages would flip that ratio to 20% tools, primarily updating and brainstorming for particular issues, and 80% emphasis on writing pages. Of session, the rewriting stages are the primary portion of a Six-Month Full Development process, even with earnest tools development and preparation.
Non-Linear Approach to Process
One of the evolving ideas here is a departure from the old view of writing. Screenwriting is challenging because, of session, we’re in a visual medium. We have to show rather than tell. And in making the jump from the ideas that are in your head or in your heart and trying to get that on the page, it’s crucial that you realize that you have to translate those ideas to a form that other people–readers, gatekeepers (the assistants to whom the executives delegate your scripts), the crew who are going to have to interpret (and hopefully not interpret too much) and eventually produce that material–can understand. Screenwriting is a very conceptual process. The mentality of I’m-a-hard-working-person-and-can-write-120-pages doesn’t quite work, because all content is derivative. Every story has been done before, at least in some way and to some degree. Even BEING JOHN MALKOVICH, an admirably original project, is based on the paradigm of switching bodies. There’s just no such thing as a story that’s totally unique. So, the approach that you take has to mitigate that problem. And in screenwriting that approach proves itself on the page through entertaining moments. Since the story moves through moments of interaction between people, your characters will ideally come across as people and not just props with feet. Hopefully, they’re human beings at a significant stage of their lives, and that stage of life–that experience, that adventure–is going to change them forever.
29 Distinctions
Our alumni work at the highest levels of the industry. Writers Boot Camp employs full-time staff to support you during your session work, and afterwards as an alumnus and working writer. Though your commitment does not require quitting your day job or investing in program full-time, you need ten hours for writing outside of class, and we recommend that for at least 40 weeks out of the 52-week calendar year to scale the true learning curve and sustain a professional pace. Professional Membership in LA and NY includes 48 sessions over 22 months, four script evaluations and conferences, monthly events and web-accessible streaming, weekly mentor office hours and online support. You have the option of writing three feature scripts or five television series spec scripts, or a variety of either.
]]>Misbehavior is a term used to get close to the essence of what makes movie and TV characters accessible. A descendant and enhancement of the industry term character arc–character change over the session of a story–misbehavior is a tool for activating characters and connecting action to the ground wire of thematic resonance.
Misbehavior is the way that a character affects other characters negatively while remaining sympathetic, well meaning or heroic to some degree. It’s also a tool for writing every scene. When characters misbehave they affect each other and interact more with each other, inevitably creating interesting and pertinent conflict.
We refer to Misbehavior applied to the Main Character, who represents the spine of the story, as Building Block Misbehavior because it operates as the cornerstone from which all thematic material is sourced. While a very unique, proprietary Writers Boot Camp invention and term, misbehavior will not only activate your characters but also help you fully develop them in relation to the context of the story.
Still, misbehavior does not in itself make a character entirely unique, what we refer to as a Character Conceit. Misbehavior is one characteristic, yet a very important one. Character Conceit is another topic, one involving issues of entertainment approach at the conceptual level of script development and evaluation, versus the level of character development. There are at least two dozen additional decisions and distinctions for defining character beyond misbehavior.
Misbehavior relates character change to the experience and action that we see over the session of the story. The audience can see and feel the change rather than hear it so baldly in a line of dialogue. Misbehavior connects the thematic and psychological underpinning to the actual events and character interactions along the adventure.
Misbehavior is not the same as bad behavior, though it contains some bad. See the description as a sweet and sour combination. For example, if you know that your character is ambitious, then mitigate that positive by adding sour to the mix, like overly ambitious or even surprisingly ambitious. The key is not to turn it into a complete negative.
Conversely, if you start with a negative, the problematic aspect of the character, like short-tempered, then you would add a positive word, like idealistic, earnest or passionate, resulting in passionate yet short-tempered. Context will help you hone in on the best behaviors and synonyms relating to the actual story and theme.
A rare example of a misbehavior expressed in a single word is the description of Tom Cruise’s character in TOP GUN, whose name and misbehavior are the same, Maverick. Maverick means many things, including reckless, in his case, cocky, talented and heroic. Maverick as a character trait implies interaction with other people, and you can see the impact on others through windows, moments like buzzing the control tower and being a poor wing man.
When someone misbehaves, maybe hurting others, the motivation is rarely malevolent or malicious. Only cardboard characters are entirely good or bad, black and white.
Generally, a character may remain sympathetic, or even redeemable in some way, if a paradox is established between their high hopes and human limitations, between their charming qualities and blind spots, or between their good intentions and misguided disposition. In OFFICER AND A GENTLEMAN, Richard Gere’s character enters officer training with a more selfish m.o. and he transforms, ultimately becoming a gentleman. Dustin Hoffman’s character in TOOTSIE is depicted as a womanizer, in addition to being an opinionated actor. He learns to be a better man as a woman, a hard-to-believe situation if the human motivation weren’t conceived well and executed clearly in the movie. In both movies, the characters exhibit numerous talents, passions and entertaining qualities.
Misbehavior is not exhibited by every main character in every movie. Main character misbehavior is not a rule. Misbehavior is a tool. The misbehavior may vary according to the unique aspects of an idea and whether the main character is more human or heroic. Your main character may possess super powers and may never change. For example, Indiana Jones is a slightly fallible and amusing hero, though his adventure does not focus on personal change.
Every character may exhibit misbehavior.. Misbehavior is an approach to character and also a way to write every scene, to activate the energy of every scene by motivating your characters to respond outwardly, unexpectedly and overextending rather than retreating, therefore rising to become larger-than-life.You would be hard-pressed to choose a main character in the ensemble movie DINER, yet each character interacts with some degree of entertaining misbehavior.
Misbehavior is not simply an adjective or a character description.. The word introverted is descriptive, yet you can usually infer lack of action from that word. Instead, socially awkward illustrates potential behavior and interaction with others. The forward motion, depending on the dramatic levels and conceits inherent in your idea, is usually more entertaining than inactivity.
Misbehavior is a great way to elevate your writing and to attract name actors to your script. Acting is a license to misbehave, to display a range of emotion and behavior. Since screenplay form tends toward the depiction of a profound event, most main characters change over the session of the journey.
Make your characters misguided, rather than one-sided. As in Aristotle’s concept of tragic flaw, used so effectively by Shakespeare, and Stan Lee in manner of humanizing superheroes, a character’s greatest weakness may also be the source of their strength and destiny. The onset of a particular journey for a character will most times be inspired and motivated by the need for the particular lesson of the story.
In some victim or youth coming-of-age stories, misbehavior is not evident.
Misbehavior can shapeshift at intervals and from moment to moment. This is also a question of art and how the characters as emotional, behavioral animals inhabit the spaces of their relationships with people (other well-drawn characters). Misbehavior is charismatic rather than static, and the instances and callbacks to it in the story remind us of the stakes on a personal and interpersonal level. In addition to increasing active stance, additional instances of momentary misbehavior may occur throughout a story, relating to the situation rather than the building block issues and motivated by good reason, like pushing aside an authority figure to get past a barricade to save another character in jeopardy.
Misbehavior is a way to illustrate theme. A metaphor for theme, through the building block misbehavior a writer can chart stages of progress, as well as setbacks, and convey the profound significance and meaning of the action/story/adventure without having to state directly what your story means. In a feature, the 2nd Act adventure is usually the opposite, or creates the opposite, of the misbehavior. In other words, the personal experience of the adventure is what changes the misbehavior. Many of the best high-concept movies, especially comedies, connect what happens on the adventure to the misbehavior.
The adventure will not always be the opposite of the misbehavior, the dynamic progression will not be present in every 2nd Act sequence, and every main character will not obviously exhibit a build block misbehavior–but these approaches dramatically improve the tension and coherence of your story. The key to organic writing and character development is to make clear character choices and to identify the audience experience you are creating. The variables, special qualities and limitations of any idea will require you to adapt and finesse through access to various tools in your writing arsenal, among them misbehavior. Everything in entertainment is contrived to some degree–it’s just not supposed to feel that way.
Project Conceits
Writers Boot Camp uses the term “conceit” to describe a specific approach to the content of your movie, television show or web series that distinguishes it from others, especially in the case of material or subject matter that may be similar. More advanced than a component or story decision, a conceit addresses and describes the audience experience of your story. It’s a writing tool and also a tool for collaboration with the team of developers and filmmakers.
A conceit is an approach to a story component, or combination of components, rather than the component itself. In its broadest expression, it’s a phrase or notion that points to a unique layer of material in the project. In more practical terms, a conceit is a statement, a single-sentence description of that unique approach that includes words and phrases to express the combination of components and ingredients that form the DNA of the project. A conceit statement is in effect a title of a list of setpieces that illustrates the script’s entertainment concept, which in turn represents the primary layer of material that will ultimately attract an audience.
Full Development Philosophy
Based on an expedient first-draft process, including emphasis on developing tools like the Unity Page, the 3-6-3, the Horizontal and brainstorming of setpieces, Writers Boot Camp estimates that a feature-length script can be readable by industry standards within six months, working at a part-time pace of ten hours per week.*
The ratio of tools work versus writing during the first-draft stage would be 80% tools and 20% writing. Once the tools have been established, then the subsequent rewriting stages would flip that ratio to 20% tools, primarily updating and brainstorming for particular issues, and 80% emphasis on writing pages. Of session, the rewriting stages are the primary portion of a Six-Month Full Development process, even with earnest tools development and preparation.
Non-Linear Approach to Process
One of the evolving ideas here is a departure from the old view of writing. Screenwriting is challenging because, of session, we’re in a visual medium. We have to show rather than tell. And in making the jump from the ideas that are in your head or in your heart and trying to get that on the page, it’s crucial that you realize that you have to translate those ideas to a form that other people–readers, gatekeepers (the assistants to whom the executives delegate your scripts), the crew who are going to have to interpret (and hopefully not interpret too much) and eventually produce that material–can understand.
Screenwriting is a very conceptual process. The mentality of I’m-a-hard-working-person-and-can-write-120-pages doesn’t quite work, because all content is derivative. Every story has been done before, at least in some way and to some degree. Even BEING JOHN MALKOVICH, an admirably original project, is based on the paradigm of switching bodies. There’s just no such thing as a story that’s totally unique. So, the approach that you take has to mitigate that problem. And in screenwriting that approach proves itself on the page through entertaining moments. Since the story moves through moments of interaction between people, your characters will ideally come across as people and not just props with feet. Hopefully, they’re human beings at a significant stage of their lives, and that stage of life–that experience, that adventure–is going to change them forever.
29 Distinctions
- Our alumni work at the highest levels of the industry.
- Writers Boot Camp employs full-time staff to support you during your sessionwork, and afterwards as an alumnus and working writer.
- Though your commitment does not require quitting your day job or investing in program full-time, you need ten hours for writing outside of class, and we recommend that for at least 40 weeks out of the 52-week calendar year to scale the true learning curve and sustain a professional pace.
- Professional Membership in LA and NY includes 48 sessions over 22 months, four script evaluations and conferences, monthly events and web-accessible streaming, weekly mentor office hours and online support.
- You have the option of writing three feature scripts or five television series spec scripts, or a variety of either.
One of the evolving ideas here is a departure from the old view of writing. Screenwriting is challenging because, of session, we’re in a visual medium. We have to show rather than tell. And in making the jump from the ideas that are in your head or in your heart and trying to get that on the page, it’s crucial that you realize that you have to translate those ideas to a form that other people–readers, gatekeepers (the assistants to whom the executives delegate your scripts), the crew who are going to have to interpret (and hopefully not interpret too much) and eventually produce that material–can understand.
Screenwriting is a very conceptual process. The mentality of I’m-a-hard-working-person-and-can-write-120-pages doesn’t quite work, because all content is derivative. Every story has been done before, at least in some way and to some degree. Even BEING JOHN MALKOVICH, an admirably original project, is based on the paradigm of switching bodies. There’s just no such thing as a story that’s totally unique. So, the approach that you take has to mitigate that problem. And in screenwriting that approach proves itself on the page through entertaining moments. Since the story moves through moments of interaction between people, your characters will ideally come across as people and not just props with feet. Hopefully, they’re human beings at a significant stage of their lives, and that stage of life–that experience, that adventure–is going to change them forever.
We don’t want to make this a formula. We don’t want to say that every two-hour feature or TV movie, every hour-long TV series or sitcom has to be about all these things. But generally, we’re dealing with a four-segment structure and a profound event for the main character. And then from that core perspective you can diverge, consciously and specifically to develop the potential of your material.
If you look at screenwriting as conventional writing, where you’re doing things in order all the time, always starting from the beginning and cherishing the words on the page, your work will possibly miss its target.
If you’re watching TV or going to a theater, there’s some social experience you desire. You’re going to be entertained. As writers we often forget that. So, it’s not what happens in a story that matters as much. Yes, the story needs to be plausible enough so you don’t lose the audience. The science of the story has to be clear. The hows and whys–the who, what, when, where, why and how have to be clear. But it’s the WOW that’s most important, the impact on an audience. And too often, when we’re writing we’re trapped in that process and we’re not acknowledging that other people need to feel something. Or are going to respond. And it’s normal to lose that when you’re in the process.
So what we’ve been coining lately is a non-linear approach. That word non-linear means so many different things.
Applications of the Term Non-Linear
1. Enter Anywhere: Can you enter the process at almost any point with confidence? Whether you’re developing an idea from the inspiration of a title, a character, an arena, a theme or an adventure, can you clone the arc of a story from any detail? If you’ve got a hundred scenes in your horizontal, can you write just the fun or thrilling scenes first? That keeps the energy flowing. That gives you incentive to keep going.
2. Tools Rather than Formula: The tools are designed to help you articulate your creative goals, not to strangle the life out of your story. The tools help you to develop what you want instead of getting lost in the words and the plot. Can you move fluidly through the levels of script development from the concise expression of concept to the increasing levels of detail, and skip comfortably to evaluate from level to level?
3. Avoid the Plot Problem: Non-linear means not to be “plot-driven,” not to be focused on simply the transportation of your characters through the story or about information. To make sure that we’re on a ride while we’re watching those characters doing those things.
4. 2nd Act First: Non-linear is also about “Second Act Emphasis.” Since 2nd and 3rd Act problems usually reveal 1st Act set-up issues, it’s an improbable task to know the 1st Act until you’ve orbited the entire journey. (If you apply 4-segment structure to sitcoms or hour-long, all it means is the middle two segments, if there are four segments.) Like in your life, if you could redo the past ten years, knowing what you know now, you’d probably be more effective and have more fun doing it. Wouldn’t it be better process to be less rigid with the pages while you write them instead of clinging to writing chronologically, and then finally having that V-8 moment, like a slap to your head: “Hey, I can compress the first 60 pages down to 15!”
5. Character-Driven Story: It’s important to take a non-linear approach to realize that scenes need breadth. A character inhabits a story, rather than being forced by the plot to do things. That doesn’t mean that your scenes should serpentine or zig-zag, but linear feels very thin and straight and what you’re looking for is sort of the “soul” and “juice” of what a character’s experiencing and fleshing that out.
6. Crafting Moments, Not Words: Non-linear also means that the script is not about words. It’s wonderful when a script can read lyrically and often in sitcom writing the turn of a phrase in dialogue makes a difference. But it’s more important to be crafting moments and creating a rhyming process throughout the whole story, throughout that journey, than to be focused so much on what words are going where. It’s what the words are conveying that matters. The words are more like points in a pointillist vision.
7. Enhancing Dialogue: Relating to dialogue, you can be more non-linear by realizing what the characters’ agenda require and motivate rather than speaking in direct response to the words. What are the emotions? What’s the state of mind? What’s the awareness? What’s the point of view of that character? What’s at stake?
Project Conceits
Writers Boot Camp uses the term “conceit” to describe a specific approach to the content of your movie, television show or web series that distinguishes it from others, especially in the case of material or subject matter that may be similar. More advanced than a component or story decision, a conceit addresses and describes the audience experience of your story. It’s a writing tool and also a tool for collaboration with the team of developers and filmmakers.
A conceit is an approach to a story component, or combination of components, rather than the component itself. In its broadest expression, it’s a phrase or notion that points to a unique layer of material in the project. In more practical terms, a conceit is a statement, a single-sentence description of that unique approach that includes words and phrases to express the combination of components and ingredients that form the DNA of the project. A conceit statement is in effect a title of a list of setpieces that illustrates the script’s entertainment concept, which in turn represents the primary layer of material that will ultimately attract an audience.
Main Character Misbehavior
Misbehavior is a term used to get close to the essence of what makes movie and TV characters accessible. A descendant and enhancement of the industry term character arc–character change over the session of a story–misbehavior is a tool for activating characters and connecting action to the ground wire of thematic resonance.
We refer to Misbehavior applied to the Main Character, who represents the spine of the story, as Building Block Misbehavior because it operates as the cornerstone from which all thematic material is sourced. While a very unique, proprietary Writers Boot Camp invention and term, misbehavior will not only activate your characters but also help you fully develop them in relation to the context of the story.
Full Development Philosophy
Based on an expedient first-draft process, including emphasis on developing tools like the Unity Page, the 3-6-3, the Horizontal and brainstorming of setpieces, Writers Boot Camp estimates that a feature-length script can be readable by industry standards within six months, working at a part-time pace of ten hours per week.*
The ratio of tools work versus writing during the first-draft stage would be 80% tools and 20% writing. Once the tools have been established, then the subsequent rewriting stages would flip that ratio to 20% tools, primarily updating and brainstorming for particular issues, and 80% emphasis on writing pages. Of session, the rewriting stages are the primary portion of a Six-Month Full Development process, even with earnest tools development and preparation.
29 Distinctions
- Our alumni work at the highest levels of the industry.
- Writers Boot Camp employs full-time staff to support you during your sessionwork, and afterwards as an alumnus and working writer.
- Though your commitment does not require quitting your day job or investing in program full-time, you need ten hours for writing outside of class, and we recommend that for at least 40 weeks out of the 52-week calendar year to scale the true learning curve and sustain a professional pace.
- Professional Membership in LA and NY includes 48 sessions over 22 months, four script evaluations and conferences, monthly events and web-accessible streaming, weekly mentor office hours and online support.
- You have the option of writing three feature scripts or five television series spec scripts, or a variety of either.
The creative life is generally a gamble. The additional risk in the business of screenwriting is that from the outside things look a lot simpler than the reality of sitting down to write, translating your ideas, refining your work and ideas professionally, and circulating your product. Even once you’re lucky enough to see your material produced, there are no guarantees of ongoing success.
Writers Boot Camp’s Professional Membership Program evolved because the screenwriting learning curve is much steeper than it first appears and the nature of the process is much more specific. Moreover, timelines for things like career breakthroughs, as well as the very idiosyncratic nature of the profession itself, additionally conspire to make the life of the writer often unpredictable.
Following are twelve pervasive fallacies about writing and the business of writing. Of session, there are exceptions to all of them by exceptional individuals. We wish you luck, though we don’t suggest that you count on being the exception. Instead, we encourage you to integrate the responses to these fallacies to create a winning, professional lifestyle rather than playing the lottery with your creative life.
1. “I Have a Great Script Idea”
Prove it: Just because you have an idea doesn’t mean it’s a viable project. Fact is, the industry appetite for content has rendered most content derivative. Only the uniquely entertaining approach to your story, rarely the plot itself, will distinguish it from other scripts of similar subjects, themes, genres, character types and paradigms. It’s your challenge as a screenwriter to define what about your idea is truly conceptual before you make the claim of its greatness. Are there dozens of special moments in the script that entertain in a way never seen before? Are you upending a myth, or a cliché, accomplishing a first of some sort, creating a franchise character, or extending what’s possible in the realm of cinema and television?
2. “I’m Going to Take Time Off to Write”
KEEP YOUR DAY JOB! An occasional few days away for writing can charge your creative batteries, but you’ll be more productive if you integrate writing into your regular life. Many feature writers, once they’re earning a paycheck, consider 20-30 hours a week to be writing full-time. Break the process into smaller tasks rather than carrying around the burden of your entire script. Commit ten hours a week. Focus on one or two tasks per work session–writing a scene, defining a character, brainstorming a solution to a single problem, making a list of questions to answer for future sessions. While certainly an achievement, your first sale or assignment, after taxes and percentages to representatives, will only float you to the next one, so keeping the day job, or finding a more palatable one, will best sustain your professional progress.
3. “I Can’t Get My Idea into A Single Sentence”
Yes you can. Your expression of a pithy encapsulation will also indicate the quality and energy of your characterization and Scene Work. If there’s any place to edit, it’s in the Premise Line, a single sentence description of your story that combines and highlights the most salient scene sources and approaches. Each phrase may represent huge chunks of the story. Due to the compact nature of the visual form of feature and television scripts, the pages of early drafts are really written in the service of refining and developing the main points of the story, which quickly renders the words obsolete. In screenwriting, words function to illustrate behavior. And execution on the page is conceptual, meaning that the moments you write are intended to convey and prove what is truly entertaining about your script. The script is rarely worth reading if the idea isn’t compelling in a single sentence.
4. “I’m Entering My Script in a Contest”
Contest, shmontest. The problem with contests is that most entrants use the submission date as a writing deadline for what is usually just a first draft. For that reason, few contests, other than The Nicholl’s Fellowship or major studio fellowship programs, carry weight within the industry. While we certainly suggest the benefits of a broad-based, self-educative strategy, and there is wisdom in an assertive effort toward leaving no stone of opportunity unturned, contests are not fully representative of the real, working world. Contests engender the tendency of writers to look for outside approval, rather than reinforcing your own authority over your voice and professional perspective.
5. “A Producer or Executive Friend is Waiting to See My Script”
Do Not Submit. In addition to placing too much importance on one contact, a friend deserves better than to receive a rushed script, submitted prior to its full development. Unless the timely limits of an idea are at risk, wait until you can’t do anything more on it before you prove to the reader that you lack chops. A great script will get you dozens of meetings once it’s ready. Relationships are perishable–once your inventive conceptual thinking proves itself through your script pages, the effort you’ve expended will be like a “write of passage” where your talent will be self-evident, as shown in your work, and the people you interact with will make it their business to offer you access to their contacts.
6. “I’ve Optioned My Script”
Is it a free option? Who is the producer and/or company involved? While a passionate individual who doesn’t pay you for the rights to your script may lead you to opportunity and new relationships, their status, or lack of influence, may negate the relevance of this achievement. You should be careful not to encumber your script with unnecessary attachments or partners who are not providing real value, as in significant creative input. Attachments generally will make a deal unattractive to those players who have real access to financing. On the other hand, producers don’t get paid until your script goes into production, which has given rise to the proliferation of literary managers. A manager will take a 10% commission upon the sale of your script or a paid assignment. If they stay attached as a producer on the project, their fee should be refunded to you when the project is made. Whether you are paid or not, unless your script is making progress to production or garnering new work, then your achievement of an option may only be a moral victory, if that.
7. “I’ve Rewritten My Script Ten Times”
No, you haven’t. A rewrite is not really a rewrite unless you’ve brought new material to the draft in terms of new scene ideas, more screen time for characters, more increments of the main relationships, more entertaining moments, or new events to the adventure. Instead of making profound change and impacting conceptual development, you may have unwittingly swirled the words around through editing. Until the latter stages of rewriting, you can’t often fix a script or develop a story in a line or a moment. The early stages of rewriting necessarily bring roughly 30-40% new scene ideas and page alterations to a draft.
8. “I Don’t Want to Work in Television”
Television supports the entire entertainment industry. The fast pace and matrix of available programming hours of television requires a lot of material. The environment of television is also where the writer (producer) has tremendous power in comparison to the feature world. While the risk of being pigeon-holed into a particular type of writing exists for anyone who rests on their laurels, a staff writer’s hiatus offers the opportunity to capitalize on the trend toward crossover between television and feature writing. There are many more outlets for work in television than there are in features.
9. “My Vision is Independent; I’m Not Making a Studio Picture”
Unless you’re able to finance your own film, you may not have a choice. The remaining independents are mostly owned and run by the studios. And creatively, until digital video or alternative distribution methods truly arrive, any production is still a relatively major venture. Most highly successful scripts integrate high concept with character-driven story. Most satisfying films dramatize a character’s journey through dynamic interaction with another, significant person (the second star). In every one of your scripts, whether mainstream or indie, you have the choice of emphasizing certain components—but the tools are the same and always in accord with your particular creative objectives.
10. “My Script Will Be a Great Writing Sample If It Doesn’t Sell”
No it won’t. Yes, it’s nice to know that the script you’re working on can be a calling card even if it isn’t a marketable project, but the urgency of producers and executives to find viable material puts more pressure on your script to prove your ability to execute on a marketable level. If your feature script doesn’t feel like a movie, through it’s timeliness or conceptual hook, it won’t ultimately be an effective sample. With the stakes as high as they are, no producer wants to risk their input on a new writer without proof of talent and conceptual savvy. Besides, it’s their job to find viable projects, not to provide you with help or to interpret your vision, which may still be trapped in your head rather than fully articulated on the page.
11. “I’m Not Going to Rewrite My Script Until Someone Pays Me”
Even established writers tend to rewrite two sets of notes for every studio deadline due to the attached producer’s desire to assure that notes have been fully addressed prior to handing the script in. The sheer effort required to mount a campaign for any script will cause producers to pass on projects that aren’t developed, or to pass on writers who don’t exude passion for the process. Most spec scripts that you choose not to rewrite on your own will continue to sit on your shelf, your hard drive, or in your desk drawer.
12. “How Do I Get an Agent?”
If you’re asking this question, then go back to Fallacy number one above and start again. While it may often seem to you that your script is ready to be read by other people, most of the time submitting it is premature. Though it may seem to you that the agent is the key to unlocking the equation of your career, you must remember that they receive 10% and you receive 90% of the proceeds from your work. Your material will naturally attract people to you. That’s what the entire industry is set up to do: to find material. When your awareness and skill set begins to glow at the highest frequency, then other like-minded artists and business people will find you. Most likely, a fellow writer who knows your work will recommend you to his agency. You don’t need an agent, you need a representable script!
Based on an expedient first-draft process, including emphasis on developing tools like the Unity Page, the 3-6-3, the Horizontal and brainstorming of setpieces, Writers Boot Camp estimates that a feature-length script can be readable by industry standards within six months, working at a part-time pace of ten hours per week.*
The ratio of tools work versus writing during the first-draft stage would be 80% tools and 20% writing. Once the tools have been established, then the subsequent rewriting stages would flip that ratio to 20% tools, primarily updating and brainstorming for particular issues, and 80% emphasis on writing pages. Of session, the rewriting stages are the primary portion of a Six-Month Full Development process, even with earnest tools development and preparation.
For television writers, the key to reducing this timeline is how quickly you master a working knowledge of the existing series you’re writing. While you may find the space to accomplish a rewrite a half-hour or hour-long script within the same period of time it may take to write a first-draft of a feature script, the campaign to study and intuit the conceits of a series can often take as long as the process of defining the original conceits of a feature. Unfortunately, learning the skill of breaking down the parameters and inner workings of existing movies and shows is not an overnight process.
Here’s how the timeline breaks down, factoring in a first-draft deadline, an evaluation and breathing period, and the stages of the rewriting process (see the graph next page):
Four to six weeks for your first-draft process, two weeks to expand your draft and synthesize notes, four weeks for each Component Level Rewrite (three initial passes are commonly needed for a feature) and four weeks for various Craft Level Rewrites (Highlighting Exercises). Since there are actually 26 weeks in a half a year, this 24-week schedule accommodates the occasional need for additional breaks between drafts.
This means that you can fully develop two feature scripts, or three to four television scripts, annually. Or, as you become more familiar with the process (not just Writers Boot Camp’s tools but the inherent nature of writing scripts) you may use the time to test more ideas in their early phases by writing quick mini-drafts.
Due to the need to boost your working knowledge of the particular television series that you’re writing, or to do required topical research on a feature subject, certain stages may take longer. And none of this accounts for the obstacles that you let get in the way, or that you create for yourself. Of session, if you’re able to put in more than ten hours a week, you can be even more prolific. The work tends to fill the available time, so it’s important to create specific deadlines and stages of closure if you do suddenly have thirty hours a week to write. It’s also crucial to attribute the work and specific tasks to scheduled sessions on your calendar.
Six-Month Full Development Timeline
Here’s how the Full Development timeline breaks down, factoring in your current deadline and the various stages of the rewriting process following this session: Eight weeks to complete the first draft, four weeks per Component Level Rewrite and an average of one week per Craft Level Rewrite.
The timeline of these development stages adds up accordingly:
First Draft = 8 weeks
Component Level Rewrites = 12 weeks (3 Component Rewrite Objectives)
Craft Level Rewrites = 4 weeks (Individual Highlighting Exercises)
That translates to approximately 24 weeks, or roughly 6 months. This is based on writing part-time, ten hours weekly. That’s a minimum of 240 hours to fully develop your script and make it ready to submit to “friends in the business.”*
* For 1/2-hour & 1-hour television, the timeline can be reduced to 3 to 4 months, that is, after the tools have been learned.
Project Conceits
Writers Boot Camp uses the term “conceit” to describe a specific approach to the content of your movie, television show or web series that distinguishes it from others, especially in the case of material or subject matter that may be similar. More advanced than a component or story decision, a conceit addresses and describes the audience experience of your story. It’s a writing tool and also a tool for collaboration with the team of developers and filmmakers.
A conceit is an approach to a story component, or combination of components, rather than the component itself. In its broadest expression, it’s a phrase or notion that points to a unique layer of material in the project. In more practical terms, a conceit is a statement, a single-sentence description of that unique approach that includes words and phrases to express the combination of components and ingredients that form the DNA of the project. A conceit statement is in effect a title of a list of setpieces that illustrates the script’s entertainment concept, which in turn represents the primary layer of material that will ultimately attract an audience.
Main Character Misbehavior
Misbehavior is a term used to get close to the essence of what makes movie and TV characters accessible. A descendant and enhancement of the industry term character arc–character change over the session of a story–misbehavior is a tool for activating characters and connecting action to the ground wire of thematic resonance.
We refer to Misbehavior applied to the Main Character, who represents the spine of the story, as Building Block Misbehavior because it operates as the cornerstone from which all thematic material is sourced. While a very unique, proprietary Writers Boot Camp invention and term, misbehavior will not only activate your characters but also help you fully develop them in relation to the context of the story.
Non-Linear Approach to Process
One of the evolving ideas here is a departure from the old view of writing. Screenwriting is challenging because, of session, we’re in a visual medium. We have to show rather than tell. And in making the jump from the ideas that are in your head or in your heart and trying to get that on the page, it’s crucial that you realize that you have to translate those ideas to a form that other people–readers, gatekeepers (the assistants to whom the executives delegate your scripts), the crew who are going to have to interpret (and hopefully not interpret too much) and eventually produce that material–can understand.
Screenwriting is a very conceptual process. The mentality of I’m-a-hard-working-person-and-can-write-120-pages doesn’t quite work, because all content is derivative. Every story has been done before, at least in some way and to some degree. Even BEING JOHN MALKOVICH, an admirably original project, is based on the paradigm of switching bodies. There’s just no such thing as a story that’s totally unique. So, the approach that you take has to mitigate that problem. And in screenwriting that approach proves itself on the page through entertaining moments. Since the story moves through moments of interaction between people, your characters will ideally come across as people and not just props with feet. Hopefully, they’re human beings at a significant stage of their lives, and that stage of life–that experience, that adventure–is going to change them forever.
29 Distinctions
- Our alumni work at the highest levels of the industry.
- Writers Boot Camp employs full-time staff to support you during your sessionwork, and afterwards as an alumnus and working writer.
- Though your commitment does not require quitting your day job or investing in program full-time, you need ten hours for writing outside of class, and we recommend that for at least 40 weeks out of the 52-week calendar year to scale the true learning curve and sustain a professional pace.
- Professional Membership in LA and NY includes 48 sessions over 22 months, four script evaluations and conferences, monthly events and web-accessible streaming, weekly mentor office hours and online support.
- You have the option of writing three feature scripts or five television series spec scripts, or a variety of either.
-Our writers work at the highest levels of the industry.
-Writers Boot Camp employs full-time staff to support you during your creative process, and afterwards as a working writer.
-Though your commitment does not require quitting your day job or investing in program full-time, you need 10 hours for writing per week, and we recommend that for at least 40 weeks out of the 52-week calendar year to sustain a professional pace.
-Professional Membership in LA and NY includes 48 sessions over 21 months, four script evaluations and conferences, access to events and weekly mentor Office Hours.
-You have the option of writing three feature scripts or five television series spec scripts, or a variety of either. You may also write books, novels, graphic novels and web series, along with adapted completion timelines.
-The script deadlines, after the first 12 weeks of support, and then every six months, hold you accountable to your goals.
-A 60-day hiatus, if necessary and with advance approval, is built into your support for creative breaks (and unforeseen breakups and breakdowns) that may occur.
-Your script is eligible for cast readings during your initial support.
-You have access to our staff for ease of communication, including Checkpoint tools with thorough evaluation guidelines.
-Instead of rules or formula, Writers Boot Camp gives you tools to coherently develop your material and organize your own vision without anyone imposing on your story.
-There’s no bias toward certain material but rather toward conceptual inventiveness and the full development of the potential of your ideas.
-The Checkpoints, provided through the first 12 weeks, take you through the many orbits required to fully test and develop a professional-level script.
-After your first Project Cycle, your Project Group sessions (in LA and NY) reiterate the set of Checkpoints three more times to provide accountability and to make the tools a natural part of your writing process.
-The Checkpoints reinforce an empowered rewriting process that both divides the rewriting process into more manageable stages and tasks and focuses you on refining your concept.
-Upon entering the Project Group phase, the Checkpoints become flexible tools to apply at various stages of writing and rewriting.
-The specific Checkpoints, like the renowned one-page story map called the 3-6-3, build your script and are layered versions of your developing project, not just exercises done in a vacuum.
-All story consulting at Writers Boot Camp is inherently character-driven until you make a conscious and entertaining choice otherwise.
-The process emphasizes Main-Character Driven, Four-Segment Story Structure as it applies to all script forms, including feature film, television, non-fiction narrative and digital production, and we encourage distinctions so you can move fluidly from one form to the other.
-Our creative relationship with you is treated individually, as is your progress, so we don’t expect everyone to be at the same place at the same time.
-By simply reaching out if you choose to, you will find countless chances to get direct feedback from your individual staff mentor, other members of the staff and from your fellow writers.
-The common language of Checkpoints makes your interaction with your fellow writers highly productive, without the burden of required participation outside of group meetings.
-Script evaluation is taught from a top-down approach so that Scene Work and page notes are given only at the appropriate rewriting stage and after conceptual, structural and character development issues are addressed.
-Since each of your scripts is written at its own pace, the continuing Project Group environment is not as much a group of equals as an opportunity to learn more quickly by analogy from the group.
-The method of support and collaborative environment make you a better authority of your own work by reinforcing the nature of the tools and the nuances of the writing process.
-Instead of giving in to your desire for approval, the collaborative environment focuses you on prescribing tools and articulating stages of work and applying the insight you gain to make your own script more compelling.
-Industry speaker events are intended to put you in touch with how the business truly works and to turn you back inward to the one thing you can control as a writer, the work you do.
-Recapping of discussion of your material, conference notes and industry meetings is required for the creation of a log of your progress and to instill habits that may protect you professionally.
-In the service of affording writers with equal opportunity, Writers Boot Camp offers many payment-plan options.
-You earn automatic Professional Membership alumni benefits if you remain in good -standing as of completion of your initial membership support.
Project Conceits
Writers Boot Camp uses the term “conceit” to describe a specific approach to the content of your movie, television show or web series that distinguishes it from others, especially in the case of material or subject matter that may be similar. More advanced than a component or story decision, a conceit addresses and describes the audience experience of your story. It’s a writing tool and also a tool for collaboration with the team of developers and filmmakers.
A conceit is an approach to a story component, or combination of components, rather than the component itself. In its broadest expression, it’s a phrase or notion that points to a unique layer of material in the project. In more practical terms, a conceit is a statement, a single-sentence description of that unique approach that includes words and phrases to express the combination of components and ingredients that form the DNA of the project. A conceit statement is in effect a title of a list of setpieces that illustrates the script’s entertainment concept, which in turn represents the primary layer of material that will ultimately attract an audience.
Main Character Misbehavior
Misbehavior is a term used to get close to the essence of what makes movie and TV characters accessible. A descendant and enhancement of the industry term character arc–character change over the session of a story–misbehavior is a tool for activating characters and connecting action to the ground wire of thematic resonance.
We refer to Misbehavior applied to the Main Character, who represents the spine of the story, as Building Block Misbehavior because it operates as the cornerstone from which all thematic material is sourced. While a very unique, proprietary Writers Boot Camp invention and term, misbehavior will not only activate your characters but also help you fully develop them in relation to the context of the story.
Non-Linear Approach to Process
One of the evolving ideas here is a departure from the old view of writing. Screenwriting is challenging because, of session, we’re in a visual medium. We have to show rather than tell. And in making the jump from the ideas that are in your head or in your heart and trying to get that on the page, it’s crucial that you realize that you have to translate those ideas to a form that other people–readers, gatekeepers (the assistants to whom the executives delegate your scripts), the crew who are going to have to interpret (and hopefully not interpret too much) and eventually produce that material–can understand.
Screenwriting is a very conceptual process. The mentality of I’m-a-hard-working-person-and-can-write-120-pages doesn’t quite work, because all content is derivative. Every story has been done before, at least in some way and to some degree. Even BEING JOHN MALKOVICH, an admirably original project, is based on the paradigm of switching bodies. There’s just no such thing as a story that’s totally unique. So, the approach that you take has to mitigate that problem. And in screenwriting that approach proves itself on the page through entertaining moments. Since the story moves through moments of interaction between people, your characters will ideally come across as people and not just props with feet. Hopefully, they’re human beings at a significant stage of their lives, and that stage of life–that experience, that adventure–is going to change them forever.
Full Development Philosophy
Based on an expedient first-draft process, including emphasis on developing tools like the Unity Page, the 3-6-3, the Horizontal and brainstorming of setpieces, Writers Boot Camp estimates that a feature-length script can be readable by industry standards within six months, working at a part-time pace of ten hours per week.*
The ratio of tools work versus writing during the first-draft stage would be 80% tools and 20% writing. Once the tools have been established, then the subsequent rewriting stages would flip that ratio to 20% tools, primarily updating and brainstorming for particular issues, and 80% emphasis on writing pages. Of session, the rewriting stages are the primary portion of a Six-Month Full Development process, even with earnest tools development and preparation.
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