Writing Scripts 101 is a 6-week class, which includes a mixture of lectures and exercises. It’s for beginners or anyone who wants a refresher. Farther down, you can view a syllabus for this course.
Do you dream of seeing your work performed, up there, somewhere? A spellbinding movie. An addictive TV show. A gripping play. The thrill of scriptwriting is that, if you’re lucky, you get to see your work soar to life once all the elements—the work of directors, designers, cast, crew—are added to the vision of your script.
Here you’ll gain an introduction to writing for movies, TV, and plays, and you’ll also learn techniques fundamental to all forms of scriptwriting. It’s a sampler platter, with no pressure to work on a specific project or settle on which type of scriptwriting you prefer.
If you’re eager to enter the excitement of writing scripts, the show begins right here.
Notes
- This course includes screenwriting, TV writing, and playwriting.
- The 101 courses do not include workshopping of student projects, but students write and receive feedback on writing exercises and assignments.
This course explores the major types of scriptwriting, and the techniques that go with them. Course components:
- Brief lectures
- Writing exercises
Online classes
- Week 1
- The Big Picture: Desire and conflict. Dramatic structure. Character—personality, actions, change.
- Week 2
- Scenes: Objective/obstacle. Scene pointers—beginning/middle/end, compression, stage directions, Dialogue—illusion of reality, reflecting character and situation, subtext.
- Week 3
- Playwriting: What makes it a play?—live-ness, theatricality, scene approach. Shaping a play—plot, character, and other considerations. Play scenes analyzed.
- Week 4
- Screenwriting: What makes it a movie?—Hollywood vs. indie, visual storytelling, scene approach. Shaping a movie—plot, character, and other considerations. Movie scenes analyzed.
- Week 5
- TV Writing: What makes it a TV show?—stories expanded over time, serial vs. episodic, types and forms. Shaping a TV episode—plot, character, and other considerations. TV scenes analyzed.
- Week 6
- The Dramatic Life: Getting ideas. Studying and stealing. Doing it—writing and revising, finding production.
Note: Content may vary among individual classes.
About
- The Online classes bring students from all over the globe to Gotham—New York City’s most famous writing school.
- The Online classes happen asynchronously—not in “real time.” You can participate in class any time, day or night, but the classes advance week-by-week, and certain things should be accomplished within that week-long session.
- You can take an Online writing class from anywhere, as long as you have an internet connection. The majority of our Online students are located in the U.S. but we also draw students from practically every country in the world.
- Tech support will be available.
- Aside from the convenience of time and location, you have a record of everything that transpires in class, which you can print out and keep for future reference. (The material is text and image, not video.)
