Hi! Is anyone in LA and up for a famous LA coffee meetup?? I’ve only been in LA for about two weeks now but I’m trying to build community as much as I can!

I'm thinking about starting an ongoing lecture series with a Q&A at the end of each. Anybody who has been on any of my Zoom calls, knows I'm not at a loss for words or passion or thoughts about what makes great story/character. I'm thinking this would be a weekly or semi weekly, depending on my schedule and workload outside of here. Check out the topics below and vote on what interest you most, or suggest a topic you'd love to see explored. @Spider Ange wanted more than 1 vote, which I think is a great idea. Feel free to list as many of these in whatever order that vibes with you. Suggested ideas welcome also.

@Ian Campbell ... I promised you I'd post this. I think we all would have been more interesting if we knew this was going to get posted!

Just wanted to make an extra post so you guys see this. Was at 11:30. I got pulled into a meeting so will be available at 1. Who's in?

1. Tomorrow — Phil Stark Live on Zoom Thursday @ 10am PST Phil Stark joins us — writer of Dude, Where’s My Car?, That 70’s Show, South Park, and now a therapist working with creatives. It’s rare to find someone who understands both the craft AND the mental load of this work. If you’ve ever felt the psychological whiplash of writing, pitching, or rewriting, this is your room. Bring questions. I’m carving out a long Q&A for him. 2. Enrollment Open — The Emotional Authorship Intensive The system behind turning “good” scripts into “holy shit” scripts. If you saw my recent TikTok rant — Good Scripts vs Holy Shit Scripts — you know how strongly I feel about this. Writers aren’t struggling because they “don’t know structure.” They’re struggling because they’ve been fed pablum by technocrats who’ve never lived the writing life. In that TikTok, I laid out exactly what I’ll teach next week: Scripts don’t come alive because you hit beats. They come alive because your characters carry visceral emotional truth. That’s the gap between “This is well written” and “Holy shit, you have to read this.” Most writers never cross that gap — which is why I built this Intensive. You’ll learn the system behind every major rewrite I’ve done (Shrek 2, The Smurfs, Rugrats, Jimmy Neutron, Disenchanted): • The Wound • The Lie • The Healing And how those three elements make your plot inevitable. Three sessions. Live coaching. Case studies. Plus a 1:1 treatment review for Founding Members. 👉 Enrollment: $397 -- this price won't return Go to Classroom: Click Emotional Authorship Intensive to join. Why these two events go together Phil will speak to the mental side of writing — the part that quietly sabotages drafts, ambition, confidence, and momentum. The side that tries to protect us, yet keeps us from really leaning into our inner voice. Unless we learn how to work with it. The Intensive is about the emotional craft — the engine that makes a story hit with inevitability and force. The Intensive will force you to really lean into that voice, so your characters take on deep vulnerable human dimensions, even if they're giant green ogres or stuffed toys with secret lives in the room of a boy named, Andy.