Story Development and Outlining

LYNN GRANT BECK

Story Development and Outlining

LYNN GRANT BECK

$229.99


12/05/2024 - 01/02/2025

Enroll Now

The most intelligent and intriguing premise in the world is only that—just a premise—until it’s been given a shape that draws an audience in and keeps its attention and investment. Until it’s given a protagonist through which the audience understands the premise in concrete terms, and feels the clearly-defined stakes, someone with whom they can identify and for whom they can cheer. In other words, until the premise has become a story. 

This course will examine plotting a screenplay from premise to story. You'll learn how to take your screenplay from the early stages of building an idea to a full story, ways to structure the story to keep tension and investment high, and strategies to build not only structure but texture in the world of your film. You'll work to discover how to create an experience of the world, including what the events and the world of the story mean for characters and audience alike, rather than just building up a point-by-point plot.

In online lectures, supplemental readings, and written assignments and exercises, we’ll consider many elements of story development:

  • plot and character arcs and what makes them work
  • the scene as the essential, powerful unit of story
  • how a writer might use multiple genres in crafting story, and the degree to which one ought to push back against, rather than merely accepting, genre expectations
  • the difference between story and discourse and the function of each
  • best practices in plotting out a story

We’ll also reference—and occasionally take cues from—such seemingly disparate films as Jaws, Silence of the Lambs, 8 ½, Annie Hall, Inglorious Basterds, and Boogie Nights, among others.

$229.99


12/05/2024 - 01/02/2025

Enroll Now

The most intelligent and intriguing premise in the world is only that—just a premise—until it’s been given a shape that draws an audience in and keeps its attention and investment. Until it’s given a protagonist through which the audience understands the premise in concrete terms, and feels the clearly-defined stakes, someone with whom they can identify and for whom they can cheer. In other words, until the premise has become a story. 

This course will examine plotting a screenplay from premise to story. You'll learn how to take your screenplay from the early stages of building an idea to a full story, ways to structure the story to keep tension and investment high, and strategies to build not only structure but texture in the world of your film. You'll work to discover how to create an experience of the world, including what the events and the world of the story mean for characters and audience alike, rather than just building up a point-by-point plot.

In online lectures, supplemental readings, and written assignments and exercises, we’ll consider many elements of story development:

  • plot and character arcs and what makes them work
  • the scene as the essential, powerful unit of story
  • how a writer might use multiple genres in crafting story, and the degree to which one ought to push back against, rather than merely accepting, genre expectations
  • the difference between story and discourse and the function of each
  • best practices in plotting out a story

We’ll also reference—and occasionally take cues from—such seemingly disparate films as Jaws, Silence of the Lambs, 8 ½, Annie Hall, Inglorious Basterds, and Boogie Nights, among others.

Course outline

Course outline

Each session includes a written lecture, creative exercises to further your learning, and a writing assignment to turn in for personalized feedback from your instructor.


Meet the instructor

Lynn Grant Beck

Lynn Grant Beck was born in Montclair, New Jersey. She just completed a new feature thriller, Quiet Night. Her latest sci-fi TV series, Fuzion, is currently being pitched to broadcast and streaming networks. The TV series, Hashers, was commissioned by Google VP, Jim Kolotouros. Her TV movie thriller, My Mom is a Bank Robber, aired on Lifetime in 2016 and her TV movie rom-com, 12 Gifts of Christmas aired on the Hallmark Channel in 2015. She was also hired by Tim Johnson Productions to write two other MOW thrillers, Trapped and Cult of Lies. She also wrote an action/disaster feature spec called BlackOut and has completed an animated feature spec called Sandra Claus.

Her feature screenplay, Dead Wrong, won an award in the WIF/MORE Screenplay contest and was optioned by the director, John Rhode. Her one hour pilot, The House that Jackie Built, reached the second round of the Austin Film Festival and was optioned by the director, Allen Martinez. Her half hour pilot, Life in 2D, won her a fellowship at the Writers Boot Camp and she was hired to co-write a sci-fi web series, The Annex, by director Hank Isaac. She was also hired to write the feature comedy, Hollywood Hit, for Miracle Mile Entertainment.

Other feature scripts include two comedies, James Borkowsky 000 and Trophy Husband, two romantic comedies, The Death of Art and Trouble, and a sci-fi adventure story, Jonny Was. Lynn has also written a spec TV script of Mad Men and another half hour original pilot, Twindroids.

Lynn is a Professor of Screenwriting in the MFA graduate program at Pepperdine University and has also taught Writing the Television Pilot at Santa Monica College. Lynn also has significant industry experience as Vice President of Production at Kopelson Productions, and Creative Executive at Interscope Communications. At Interscope she traveled to Australia where she was an assistant producer on Pitch Black with Vin Diesel. Her first job in the entertainment business was working as an assistant in the television movie department of Kushner-Locke.

Lynn arrived in Los Angeles from New York where she was a playwright. She founded the independent theater company, The Chelsea Players, and wrote and produced many successful Off-off Broadway plays, including Restaurant A, Magic Soup, Platform 8, The Game and The Case of the Stolen Identity. After graduating from the University of Pennsylvania with a BA in Russian Studies she traveled to Russia where she worked as an assistant director at the Nikitsky Vorot Theater. In 1990 and 1991, she spent six months working in Moscow and five months traveling across the former Soviet Union as it broke up and dissolved. She wrote a non-fiction account of that year entitled Adventure in the Soviet Union. Other works include an anthology of poetry and numerous manuscripts for children’s books. Her love of writing and the arts in general was first fostered at her time spent at Choate Rosemary Hall. She currently lives in Malibu, California with her husband, two children and tabby cat, Cream.

View Website