Six-Week Writing Workshop with Best-Selling Author and
Screenwriter Maria Semple
Are you writing a novel or a screenplay? Do you want to write a novel or a screenplay? In this class, Maria draws from her years as a novelist and screenwriter to teach you how to get your reader hooked. Bring in the first ten pages of your novel or screenplay to workshop — although you don’t need to have pages ready to attend. All levels welcome.
A two-class beat sheet intensive on Feb. 12 and 15 is at capacity. In the TV writers' room, most time is spent “breaking stories” by putting them into scenes on the white board, creating a “beat sheet.” In the first class, Maria teaches what a beat sheet is and why it’s so vital, as a screenwriter and novelist, to think in these terms. In the second class, each student will take their turn at the white board beating out the beginning of their own story while Maria offers suggestions.
About Maria Semple:
Maria Semple is the author of the novels Today Will Be Different (2016), Where’d You Go, Bernadette (2012) and This One is Mine (2008), all published by Little, Brown and Co. Before writing fiction, she wrote for the TV shows 90210, Mad About You, Arrested Development and more.
Where’d You Go, Bernadette, an international bestseller, has been translated into 30 languages. It spent over a year on the New York Times bestseller list and made over a dozen year-end best lists. It was short-listed for the Women’s Prize and received the Alex Award from the American Library Association. It’s currently being made into a film starring Cate Blanchett, Kristen Wiig and Billy Crudup. Richard Linklater writes and directs. The movie is slated to open in 2018. Today Will Be Different was an instant international bestseller and was featured on the cover of the New York Timesbook review. It, too, made over a dozen year-end best lists. It’s currently in development with Annapurna pictures as a limited TV series with Maria writing and executive producing.
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