professional writing academy – A Screenwriter’s Journey

I joined Maria Lopez Castaño’s “Adapting IP for Film and Television” workshop last evening, and it was in the style I love most. It was intimate, with only ten people, and very interactive, with both individual and group exercises in breakout rooms. We also got to chat for a few minutes with other creative professionals from around the world during the breakout exercises. I met a lovely Spanish development executive in my breakout room, and while working on an exercise about adding more drama to a story, we ended up comparing some of the tricks Spanish and Turkish TV series use to heighten the drama. I could have happily kept that conversation going. 🙂

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I love being in the writers’ room. Not just because it means I’m hired and I can put my endless search for the next job on hold, at least for a while, but because it’s a place where you can dive deeper into a story and explore its potential thoroughly with others. And even that can be very satisfying in itself. But not just that.

For me, there’s something almost magical about the writers’ room: you observe creativity in action, witness the birth of an idea, good or bad, marvel at how other creatives’ minds work, and practice speaking your own mind. It’s truly a learning environment: being in a writers’ room for a month may mean learning more than you would on your own in a year, if you’re open to collaborating with others.

And I’m not just talking about learning the nuts and bolts of the craft. You also learn how to approach the process. For example, I remember realizing that I had been judging and discarding my ideas quite prematurely after watching a head writer turn not-so-good ideas into gold again and again.

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Tag: professional writing academy

On Adapting IP with Maria Lopez Castaño

The Magic and Politics of the Writers’ Room