I'm going to be dropping a treatment or script into the Primal Forge GPT and using it as a walk through on how to build powerful characters. Any volunteers? Any guinea pigs out there? Also, if anyone hasn't tried the Primal Forge GPT, it's gotten rave reviews. You can read about it here and try it out. I'd love to know your thoughts and insights you develop with it! Primal Forge GPT Meanwhile I need a script or story or scribbles on a napkin to run through! HMU! Or drop them here. Thx! David

Hope you all had a wonderful easter weekend. 🖤 Im excited for today’s sprint. These sprints have a been a fantastic way to come together and write pages or work on what ever we are working on. But in a space together - holding ourselves accountable to get stuff done. These sprints also come with awesome chit chats about what we have been up to. Or what movies we’ve watched. And how we can get past something we’re stuck on. I’m excited to see you all there. Let’s go!! https://www.skool.com/live/2JwsddMtS7y 10am PST. 🥰🥰

We build something in isolation, and then we proudly present it, and it’s a levelling experience. It can feel like a direct attack on us down to the marrow of our bones. Terry Pratchett famously said, "The first draft is just you telling yourself the story." This permits you to be "messy." Shannon Hale views a first draft as "shovelling sand into a box so that later, I can build castles." Toy Story 3 took three years before Michael Arndt got the green light. Paul Thomas Anderson likens screenwriting to ironing: you move forward a bit, then go back and smooth things out. I don’t recall who said it, but they spoke about reframing how we look at a first draft and to stop seeing the rewrite as punishment but as showing we are intentional, in other words, professional rather than amateur. Does that make sense to you, and how would you amplify this?

Let’s go, people! These premium calls are critical. In my opinion, they are a mixture of revealing the magic of our creativity and ideas that flourished out of the universe unexpectedly, but we caught them because we showed up to the page. The other side for me is it’s like triage. Something in my story is bleeding out, and the table read is where I identify it and get some solutions from the community and David Stem. As David has said, “A good table read doesn’t just improve dialogue — it reveals the *soul gaps* in the story.” Bring your pages and let David Stem and the community help work on your story. Please reach out to people to cast your pages in advance. It helps to keep the call moving. Here’s the link to where you put up your casting and your pages. Here’s the link for the Tuesday, April 7th Premium Coach Call. Here’s the link for the Friday, April 10th Premium Coach Call.

When I was 16 I was in the honors society in HS and taking college writing. I worked for weeks on an essay regarding the socioeconomic policies of Scandinavia. Maybe the teacher thought I was a commie I don't know, but he traumatized me. He basically said to the class that this is total garbage with no redeeming value. I went to his house for a honor's society holiday party. I asked him if I fixed his electric train if he'd give me a B so I could go to the University. He agreed. It wasn't until I took a writing class at a local college 6 years after my entrance to the University of Washington that I got my first A on a legitimate essay. Timid? yes. Afraid? It's not whether or if you're afraid in my opinion. It's how you deal with that energy. Thanks @Chad Desrochers and community for being you.