I'm one of the keynote speakers at Allegory Live. I'm going to be taking the Wound, The Lie and The Small life that I teach in workshops here. If you'd like to attend, one of our members who put this together has made a couple of tickets available. HMU here or DM me if you'd like to come. First come first serve. Thx. D

I moved the New Member call to Wed. But @David Hinnebusch and @Piter Marek both DM'd to ask about this meeting. So I opened it up, so you guys can jump in now if you'd like!

Good session today. Wanted to give everybody a quick rundown in case you missed it, and to reinforce some things worth sitting with. Anna's pages — MADE Anna came back having done the work. She moved the inciting incident up front, which was the big note from last time, and it made a massive difference. The new opening — Diego Medina, the soccer star, the silent screaming in the office, the disastrous first meeting — it's got energy. It's got stakes. It works as a teaser. But here's where we pushed: right now, it's a tour. We're being walked through Jayleen's life. The interviews, the kitchen, the garage — that's all character description, not character action. Modern Family doesn't tell you who these people are. It puts them in a room together and lets them collide. The big insight today (and Chad deserves credit for this one): Jayleen can't keep her mouth shut in that meeting because Diego reminds her of someone. An uncle. A pattern. Some man she grew up watching destroy the women around him. That's a wound. That's why she blows the biggest meeting of her career. Not because she's unprofessional — because she's human. That's the difference between a tour and a story. Anna's next move: throw out the interview format, start writing the actual scenes, and let us discover who these people are through what they do to each other. Eleonora's pages Here's a story that's genuinely haunting. A fallen angel — living as a man named Tiziano — is slowly watching his half-human son Giulio die. He's bargained with God, threatened Lucifer, dragged his kid to Lourdes on a pilgrimage, and still can't fix what he broke. The concept is extraordinary. Rooted in the Book of Enoch. Three or four years in the making. My main note: you're writing a scriptment — and I mean that as a compliment, not a criticism. James Cameron writes scriptments. They're part treatment, part script, part creative vomit. They're incredibly valuable for figuring out your story. But right now, you're telling me what the scenes are about instead of letting the scenes be about something. You can't stand behind the camera and explain the subtext. The camera just points at two actors.

There's a saying we have in comedy -- commit to the bit. Which means don't half-ass it. Go all in. This goes for whatever you're working on. Saw this last night and it absolutely delighted me. Full, all in on this bit. And I'm there for it. I never heard of this guy and 15 seconds later I can't wait for more from him. This is what I mean about standing out from the crowd! What bits have delighted or intrigued you that someone completely went all in on? Yo, he needs answer!

What's Changing: For the next 4 months (March-June), I'm bringing my live workshops INTO the Premium membership. Here's what that means: Premium Members ($99/month) now get: - Weekly group coaching calls (as always) - NEW: Monthly live workshop (rotating topics) - NEW: Access to workshop library (recordings of all past workshops) - Primal Forge GPT (24/7 character diagnostic tool) - Community + accountability The workshops: - March: Creating Great Characters (Wound → Lie → Healing) - April: Writing Great Openings (The First 10 Pages) - May: Act 2 Problems (Why Scripts Die at Page 40) - June: Rewriting Like a Pro (Diagnosing What's Actually Broken) Each workshop is 2-3 live sessions. Interactive. With your pages. If you bought these workshops separately, they'd cost $397 each. That's $1,588 worth of workshops over 4 months. Premium members get all of it for $99/month. Why I'm Doing This: I run standalone workshops pretty much every month. People loved them. The information in them is based on my 30 years of working for every major studio and is absolutely essential to your growth as a writer. I want everyone to have access to this info.But it felt weird to charge Premium members extra for something that's core to what I teach. So I'm testing a new model: workshops included in Premium. If this works, I'll keep it. If it doesn't, I'll adjust. But for March-June, this is the structure. If You're Already a Premium Member: You're already in. First workshop (Creating Great Characters) starts March 10th. Check the Events section for dates. If You're Not a Premium Member Yet: You have two choices: Option 1: Join Premium for $99/month (get all 4 workshops + ongoing coaching) Option 2: Stay free (you'll miss the workshops, but you can still lurk in discussions) After June, I'll decide if workshops stay in Premium or go back to standalone. But for the next 4 months, this is your chance to get $1,588 worth of workshops for $396 total.