Do you have a screenplay you care about deeply—but can’t make it land? Maybe it’s an idea you can’t shake. Fifty pages you can’t finish. Six outlines and no draft. Or a story you’ve carried for years without finding the right way to tell it. That all changes this week. I’m launching The Screenplay Forge: a 16-week, high-touch cohort where 25 serious writers will develop and finish a screenplay or pilot—with me directly involved in their stories every week. I’ve spent 25+ years writing for every major studio. Shrek 2. Jimmy Neutron. Disenchanted. More than $2.5 billion at the box office. And after coaching hundreds of writers, I’ve seen the same problem again and again: A NEW WAY OF WRITING YOUR SCRIPT Most struggling scripts don’t have a structure problem. They have a story that was never fully alive. That’s because most screenwriting systems begin with plot: beat sheets, Save the Cat, the Hero’s Journey. Those tools can organize a story. They can’t bring one to life. The Screenplay Forge isn’t an incremental improvement on what you’ve been doing. It’s a radically different way to do it: a character-first process called the Primal Forge Method. Before you write a single plot point, you’ll uncover your character’s wound, lie, small life, desire, breaking point, and primal drive. Once that engine is alive, the story begins generating its own momentum—and structure becomes the loose cage that contains it. Inside The Screenplay Forge, we’ll reverse the usual process: Build the character engine. Forge the story in prose. Write the screenplay last—when it becomes the easy part. YOU DON'T HAVE TO FACE THE BLANK PAGE ALONE You won’t be working in the dark, hoping this method works for you. I’ll be with you every step of the way in an ongoing live workshop, where you’ll get direct professional feedback from someone who has sold screenplays and had movies made at pretty much every major studio in town. That kind of hands-on professional story development is something most screenwriters simply don’t have access to.

Here's a small "break in moment" that I wanted to celebrate with you guys: my short screenplay Amos The Great has been selected as Quarter-finalist in the Outstanding Screenplays contest ! It's a small thing, but really it has made my week after France just lost the World Cup 😅 Just wanted to share and say thank you for all the notes and the calls and the support in writing and rewriting and re-rewriting this. The Forge rocks!

Hello everyone! I’m excited to join this group. I have a completed screenplay that has some problem areas and I’m hoping to learn how to fix them. I’m listening!

This is what it's all about. Getting your pages off your screen and getting live feedback on your work! There's a New Member Orientation/Hot Seat/Welcome to The Cult Indoctrination call this Thursday at 10 a.m. Pacific Time! CLICK HERE TO JOIN Bring the opening of your script, which we will read in a table read and then give you feedback and I'll personally coach you up. Or just come along to meet your fellow writers and get an earful of why you can Save the Cat and neuter your script at the same time if you're not careful. This place is built, not to give you an improved way of doing things, but a whole NEW way that will radically change your relationship to your characters and script. Who's in? If you have pages, drop them below and @Chad Desrochers will coordinate the line up. Also, check out The Screenplay Forge here. It's a small cohort intensive designed to help you get out of indecision and write the best screenplay of you life in the next 16 weeks. And also come out with a plan to take it to market. Click here to find out more. See you Thursday, David

Feedback Request: Jake's Gamble One-page. This is what I have so far. Any suggestions would be much appreciated. Also, I have 2 taglines. 1. SOME BETS ARE WORTH LOSING EVERYTHING FOR. 2. IT'S NEVER TOO LATE TO LOVE, FORGIVE, OR BEGIN AGAIN.