@writing
A space for writers to create, connect and share.
Deborah Pardes
@DBPardes · 2:23
THIS SUMMER YOU WILL WRITE: A Swell MasterClass with Hollywood’s Shawn Shepps
And Sean Chefs was not only a great teacher, she was a real, I would say, mentor to bring joy and lightness to the process of writing. So I just got off the phone with her. I said, Sean, let's have a conversation on Swell and really invite people to get messy with us and really talk about writing and get ideas out there and pitch to you and have you respond and just keep this as a flowing thing
Shawn Schepps
@Shawn_Christy · 4:25
Decide what genre you want it to be, comedy, action, adventure, and then start writing your outline. Your outline is basically your script or your book without any dialogue in it. And then you and your idea are holding hands and you're moving down a path together. I just want to say I'm around for any questions, if anybody has any. Oh, I have more time. Cool. Here's another thing I want to tell you. Don't judge yourself while you're writing
Deborah Pardes
@DBPardes · 2:04
So let's get into that just for a second. We don't want to judge ourselves at all. We want to just write. But if I'm writing and I realize there's no structure and I'm p***** at myself because I don't see an act one, act two, act three. When do I take a pause and start to structure it? And that doesn't have to come in the form of me judging myself. Oh, I'm a bad writer
Shawn Schepps
@Shawn_Christy · 2:47
Every character that is the lead of a movie or an ensemble. Characters want something. They want something to change by the end of the story or they didn't ask for it. But it came into their lives and it's changing their lives. And you meet all those characters in the beginning and find out what they want. Beginning of the second act. You see these characters actively trying to get what they want and actively can be a high car speed chase to a love letter
Deborah Pardes
@DBPardes · 1:51
Oh, it's getting juicy now, so I'm gonna stop us and slow us down. And I want to focus on the beginning and whether we're writing a web series or play or even a novel or a memoir, I really want to sit with you for a second and talk about beginnings because I know for myself when I wrote songs, I usually threw out my first verse and my second verse became my first verse
Shawn Schepps
@Shawn_Christy · 4:41
When I teach one of the assignments I give to everyone in my class and doesn't matter if they're writing a short story or a screenplay or a TV pilot or webisode novel. Doesn't matter. I want to know who their characters are because the story revolves around what the characters want and you've got your protagonist, who's your hero character, who can also be an antihero. And you have your antagonist, who's the bad guy, but he could end up being the good bad guy
Deborah Pardes
@DBPardes · 2:35
I gotta say, this is a gold mine. I'm sharing this with everybody I know who's into writing. I don't know how many people that is, but I just shared it on a writing Facebook group because I just feel like the basics of what you just said by of how you got there was really interesting to me. You kind of leave me with this thought about want
Shawn Schepps
@Shawn_Christy · 2:36
It is the main and most important part of your story. Characters that need something that want something that have to go out there in the world and get something or have to stay in their apartment and get something. There is something that they want and things keep getting in the way of their journey to get what they need
Shawn Schepps
@Shawn_Christy · 1:05
I just want to talk about one more thing regarding what characters want. It is also and this can be semantics. What a character is lacking, what they don't have in their life, what they wish they had in their life. They wish their marriage would stay together, they get a raise, they wish their boss likes them. They wish their friend wasn't marrying the beautiful girl that they have a crush on on it's, what a character is lacking in their lives that makes them want
Deborah Pardes
@DBPardes · 1:27
And I think that's super clever. And I just want you to first of all, I want to know if you know the show and if you don't go watch it and then come back. But if you do, I'd love to talk about when both the characters and the audience both are not what they really want and what their mission is and what that does to the tension and the sort of the drive of the plot. But more importantly, like how freaking good the show is