Screen and Stage to the Page: What Drama, Movies & TV Can Teach Prose Writers

Some of today's best writing in terms of theme, character, dialogue, and plot is being done by playwrights, screenwriters, and teleplay writers. Netflix and other streaming services especially are changing the way people engage with narratives, with "binge-watching" fundamentally changing the way audiences relate to long story arcs. In this class, a nationally syndicated film critic and multi-award-winning novelist will show students how to adapt and use the tools of Pulitzer Prize-winning playwrights, Emmy Award-winning TV writers and Oscar-winning screenwriters for their prose fiction stories and novels. Topics covered will include ways to rewrite real-life incidents into tight and compelling drama, how to streamline exposition so it doesn't stop your narrative dead, how to crystallize character-defining moments into a scene, how to structure your scenes so they have satisfying resolutions but still keep your readers hooked for the next scene, and how to use specific settings to amp drama. Classes will consist of analysis of plays, teleplays, and scripts as well as some prose source materials, group watching of films and TV episodes, and in-class workshopping of students' short fiction and novel excerpts with special emphasis on how the tools of screen, TV and stage writers can be applied to these works. All genres and kinds of fiction writers are welcome.

Scholarship Information

Thanks to the excellent literary citizenship of our donors, scholarships are available for all GrubStreet classes. To apply, click the gray "APPLY FOR SCHOLARSHIP" button. In order to be considered for a scholarship, you must complete your application at least one week before the start date of a class. Please await our scholarship committee's decision before registering for the class. We cannot hold spots in classes, so the sooner you apply, the better. Scholarships cannot be applied retroactively.

For more more detailed information about GrubStreet scholarships, including how to contribute to scholarship funds for other students, click here.