Advanced Screenwriting 

Pierce College Class, September 26 to October 14

Room 108, 7-9 p.m.

Syllabus: Week 1/ Week 2 / Week 3 / Week 4 / Week 5 / Week 6 / Week 7 / Week 8 /

Week 1 — Scriptwriting & the Three-Act Structure

• Introduction

• Three Act Structure — why you need it

• Creating a personal writing workout (contract with yourself)

• Personal Project development – developing a marketing plan

Week 2 — Hollywood Bound or Indy

• Making it Commercial

• Myths and making them work

• Making a Subplot work

• Building Momentum

• Exercise in building conflict

• Writing critique

Week 3 — Dimensional Characters

• Discovering motivation, philosophies and attitudes

• Finding & Developing the conflict

• Functions of Character

• Writing critique

Week 4— Subplots

• Finding your subplots

• Development and emphasis

• Writing critique

Week 5 — The treatment

• What they include

• Breaking yours down

• Finding the beats

• Writing critique

Week 6— Visual Elements

• Making your dialogue more visual

• How to remove talking heads

• Use of Symbolism & screen shorthand

• Writing critique

Week 7 — Rewriting – The Biggest part of Writing

• Changing elements without changing the story

• Ensuring a cohesive script

• Writing critique

Week 8 — Marketing

• Developing your persona plan, choosing

• finding agents & producers

• writing query letters

• pick your contests & conferences

• pitch fests

• who are your contacts

• creating a log line

Suggested Reading

First, read every script you can get your hands on. Then try . . .

Making a Good Script Great, a guide for writing and rewriting a Hollywood script, by Linda Seger

Screenwriting, The Sequence Approach, the hidden structure of successful screenplays, by Paul Joseph Gulino

Alternative Scriptwriting, successfully breaking the rules, by Ken Dancyger and Jeff Rush

Breakfast with Sharks, a screenwriter’s guide to getting the meeting, nailing the pitch, signing the deal and navigating the murky waters of Hollywood, by Michael Lent