Finding Your Voice as a Screenwriter
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About this Live Online Course
In a world where countless scripts compete for attention, developing your unique voice as a screenwriter has never been more vital. This course is designed to help you uncover and amplify what makes your storytelling captivating and distinct. You’ll learn how to identify the stories that best reflect who you are and shape ideas that highlight your individuality. Together, we’ll explore how to craft work that not only stands out but also forges meaningful connections with audiences on a deeper level.
How the course is structured:
For six weeks, you will meet as a large group for lecture and generative exercises. Each session will consist of both Instructor lectures and hands-on exercises for participants to complete and share with the group.
What you bring to the course:
- An interest in screenwriting. Creators at any level of experience are welcome to apply. (You do not need to have a screenplay or active project to participate.)
What you’ll get from the course:
- An exploration of “free-writing” as a way to access deeper ideas
- A greater sense of the tones/genres that most speak to you
- How to mine personal experience for creative inspiration
- How to develop engaging, complex characters and relationships
- An understanding of what stylistic tools are available in screenwriting
- How to craft an inciting incident and understand the intentions of your story
- How to create a meaningful emotional center for your storytelling
- How to create a three-act structure for your story
- How to draft the framework and a draft of an outline for your screenplay
This course will:
- Provide tools and techniques to apply to any project.
- Connect you with other creators via a discussion board where you can discuss core concepts and share your work.
- Highlight successful screenplays in a variety of genres, illustrating how they showcase the author’s voice, with opportunities to pose questions to the instructor in an open forum.
- Recommend reading and viewing, but not require work outside class.
For an additional fee of $150, you may elect to meet with your Instructor for a 45-minute 1-1 session during the course term. You would submit work in advance and then in this 1-1 session, your Instructor would provide feedback on one of the following documents (no more than eight pages):
- a synopsis
- a one-pager
- a treatment
- a detailed outline
A limited number of need-based scholarships are available and are considered on a rolling basis as they are received. Those who apply earlier will have a greater chance of getting support. To apply for a scholarship, please complete the course registration form.
Sundance Collab provides accommodations and support services to participants with disabilities. Accommodations and services are designed to meet the needs of each participant. Please email us at accessibility@sundance.org to arrange for services.
Live Online CourseScholarships
Sundance Collab offers a limited number of full and partial need-based scholarships for individuals who need assistance.
Due to limited scholarship funds available, we prioritize one course scholarship per participant in a 12-month period. Scholarship applications are available up to one week before the registration deadline and do not stack with discounts or promotions, including early registration.
Outline
Topics covered include:
- How to find ease and flow in your writing process
- Tools for how to get out of your own way
- Identifying what kinds of stories resonate most with you
- Exploring how to choose a tone and genre
Topics covered include:
- Developing a brainstorming process
- Digging deeper into the topics you’re passionate about
Topics covered include:
- Mining your experiences to create deeper characters
- Developing character arcs that resonate
Topics covered include:
- Learning the stylistic tools available to you to express yourself (scene description, punctuation, pacing, dialogue, etc.)
- Identifying how you naturally communicate and how to apply it to the page
Topics covered include:
- Using your tone/genre, topic, characters, and style to develop an inciting incident
Topics covered include:
- Breaking your inciting incident into a three-act structure
- Keys to a skeleton outline
Team
Jen Harrington
Instructor
Writer/Director Jennifer Harrington’s (DGA/WGA) most recent scripts, HELL’S BELLES (Hollywood Reporter), and THE END OF LIZ AS WE KNOW IT (Hollywood Reporter), were sold to Amazon Studios and Sony Pictures, respectively, with Jake Kasdan and Melvin Mar attached to produce. Previously, she wrote and directed the horror feature SHOOK, acquired by the streamer Shudder and reviewed by the Wall Street Journal as a "guilty pleasure.” Her first feature, HOUSEKEEPING, was released by Lionsgate and After Dark Films.
In the documentary world, she was co-executive producer and a director for the doc-series DEAR… for Apple TV+ (Variety) and RJ Cutler. As an editor, she has edited several award-winning documentary features and countless television shows: GAGA: FIVE FOOT TWO for Netflix which premiered at TIFF, the Emmy-nominated feature documentary BANKSY DOES NEW YORK for HBO, THE SOURCE FAMILY premiering at SXSW, and BOGALUSA CHARM premiering at Slamdance, on which she was credited as a writer for as well. She has two film degrees: a BFA from UCLA and an MFA from USC.
No currently scheduled sessions
Interested in hearing about the next session of this course?
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