Does anyone you ever get emotional while you’re writing? Like, actually cry? I’ve noticed it happens to me most when I’m really visualizing a scene as a director—almost like I’m watching the finished movie in my head. It’s not even necessarily because the scene is sad. Sometimes it’s just because it suddenly feels real, like I’m witnessing it instead of inventing it. I’m curious if anyone else experiences this, or if your process is completely different. What does it feel like for you when you know you’re really “inside” a scene? The attached image is part of my conversation with my ChatGPT lol.

Which one is the closest to being "the one"? Why is this sooo hard???? Any advice on how to improve would be much appreciated.

We worked on scripts and loglines; we talked about pitch decks and the overwhelming reality that nothing good is built in fifteen minutes. I'm in the bathroom, I'm in bed, I'm walking a street, swimming, eating a meal, watching a movie, etc... I am always fixated on the story for better or worse. Shout out to @Anna Fermin @Ameer Ahmed @Isaac Tut for bringing positive energy to the chat

Had an idea this morning while flying to NY. The 2 coaching sessions this week were electric — both writers broke through in ways that made me stop and think: what exactly am I teaching when I do this? So I ran the transcripts through ChatGPT and Claude to see what patterns they found in my coaching. After years of instinct, it finally clicked: what I’m teaching isn’t structure — it’s emotional authorship. How to write from your characters instead of about them. How to find the wound that shaped them, the lie that protects them, and the truth the story exists to expose. That’s the forge — the moment when a writer stops moving characters around the board and starts feeling what drives them. So here’s the experiment: Can AI be trained to help writers Forge Creativity, Not Replace It? I know — AI is the third rail of the creative world right now. But this isn’t about replacing writers. It’s about revealing them. I’m calling it The Primal Forge GPT. It’s not a note bot. It’s not a formula machine. It’s a tool trained directly on how I coach writers — to help you uncover the wound, lie, and truth that make a character come alive. The goal isn’t polished pages. It’s to get unstuck — to feel what’s really driving your story, the emotional engine beneath the plot. If you’re curious, drop a logline, a scene, or even a full treatment into The Primal Forge GPT and see what happens. This is just an experiment, so it might totally fail. No worries if it does — that’s part of what we teach here. Don’t be afraid to charge headlong down rabbit holes that might lead nowhere. Even a dead end is good data. If a few of you want to try it as a brainstorming or journaling tool and share honest feedback — useful or annoying — I’d love to hear it. This is just one of many tools I hope to experiment with and bring you in the coming weeks. Click here for The Primal Forge GPT. Let’s see if we can teach a machine to help us find more humanity in our own stories. 🔥

I am so excited to share the news with you all! The results are in on my entry to the Oxford Script Awards Best US Screenplay, and I am a FINALIST! I am incredibly grateful to @David Stem and everyone in the Writer's Forge for your insights and support! I have been carrying this story in my bones for decades, and it wasn't until finding this community in mid-March that I shifted from a memoir to a screenplay, and wow, I am so glad I am here! There weren't any other teenage girl Assistant Athletic Trainers for a Men's Rugby Team in California or Europe in the 1970s or early 1980s that I ever saw or heard of, so it's a very unique story to be told, and it could only happen here in the Writer's Forge! I researched Film Festivals that were in countries where rugby is very familiar, knowing my story might be seen as surprising, coming from California, a woman, and a member of an Elite San Francisco club from the 1960s to 1980s. We have a long history of traveling overseas to play top competition unavailable in the U.S., and they once played a match in Oxford, a well-established rugby community. So I am beyond proud of this achievement! From Film Freeway: The Oxford Script Awards is an IMDb-qualifying competition built for one purpose: getting your script into the hands of UK industry professionals looking for the next indie talent. Ranked as a Top 15 Most Popular Screenwriting Festival in the UK and Top 100 Best Reviewed globally, we provide the ultimate professional platform for emerging screenwriters. We run a specialized marketing portal for directors and producers where we actively promote the best scripts from every season. This is your chance to be part of a curated selection seen by industry professionals looking for new stories. Moreover, the best screenplays receive our Main Prize of $400 for further development and career support from our professional jury.