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I’m so glad to hear it was valuable!

Let me know how it helps you! Thanks!

Enjoy! GOOOOOOD STUFF—-We debriefed on the workshop w David Stem on the 7th. And thanks for your appreciation of the workshop! Hopefully we can have more of those. :)

Great to meet you guys. Here's some thoughts I want to leave you with about story development and pitching: Key Takeaways At their heart, great stories are about what your character is avoiding dealing with emotionally. And the story comes along to kill or heal them. Start with the Lie, Not the Logline Your character's lie IS your story. It's not backstory or character development—it's the entire engine. Think about the greats: Tony Soprano believes he can compartmentalize—be a family man and a killer. The panic attacks that open the series? That's his body telling him the lie is breaking down. The entire show is the universe saying "you can't have it both ways." Walter White believes he's doing it for his family. That's the lie that lets him avoid confronting his real wound—being humiliated, overlooked, cheated out of Gray Matter. The meth empire isn't about providing for his family. It's about finally feeling like Somebody. By the end, he admits it: "I did it for me." Woody in Toy Story believes his worth comes from being Andy's favorite. When Buzz arrives, that lie gets attacked, and Woody has to discover that love isn't about being chosen—it's about choosing to show up for others. Graham Hess in Signs lost his wife in a senseless accident. His lie? That the universe is random and meaningless, so faith is pointless. The entire alien invasion is structured to prove to him that nothing is random—that his wife's dying words, his daughter's water glasses, his son's asthma, his brother's failed baseball career—it all means something. Their emotional avoidance drives the story, not the other way around. Here's Why That Is: Wound → Lie → Small Life This is your character's trajectory before the story begins: - The Wound: What hurt them? Tony's mother. The death of Graham Hess's wife. Walter White's humiliation at Gray Matter. - The Lie: What false belief did they adopt to protect themselves? - The Small Life: What limited existence are they living because of that lie?