This comment absolutely delighted me. Maybe I'm being petty, but after seeing the amazing pages and ways writers are transforming in this morning session, I got a notification that Don just doesn't approve of what we are doing here at all. Here's the Ad: I'm J. David Stem, Fancy Hollywood Writer Just let it be a reminder, that no matter what your intentions, no matter how good your pages, the world is full of Don Tuttles. Sometimes it feels like... it's Tuttles all the way down! So, keep your head down and focused on YOUR work and what YOU can control. And lets the Tuttles of the world do Tuttle things. Not. Your. Concern.

If you've been around, you know my philosophy. This place is bout being accountable and showing up for real feedback and to do the work. So... drop your pages below! Click me! I'm a Zoom link. We've got quite a few who said this time works better than morning, so now's your chance to jump in the Hot Seat and level up with live coaching, from yours truly. This can be an eye opening experience, but absolutely WILL propel you forward with clear direction on the pages you submit. Everyone who attends should have read the work of their fellow writers, so we can all benefit from and participate in the notes/brainstorming process! Think of it as a graduate class, rather than a straight lecture series. Drop those pages/treatments/loglines or ideas and let's get to work! Who's in??

I've been thinking about what I want to do here, for the writer's who show up and trust me with their time and talent. I think it's mainly this. I want to share my hard-won experience because most writers get stuck over and over in the same loop: They have an idea they love, they write it, it doesn't quite work and they don't know why. So... they get stuck in this cycle: rewrite → get random notes → rewrite again → hope this one works. And when it doesn't, they have no idea why and either quit writing or jump into the next project, none-the-wiser. What we’re doing here is different. The goal isn’t more drafts — I'm trying to teach you to see how great characters are built from frame 1, and how their internal needs and desires drive story, so they don't come across as checkers the writer's just pushing around the board. Great characters are caught between their internal life and the story that comes along to either kill them or heal them. Once, you understand this idea, you understand why scenes no longer work. Why act two "drags." Or why there isn't enough "conflict" in your script. And you learn to really write from your own voice, rather that blindly relying on formulas to save the cat or go on yet another heroes journey nobody gives a damn about. If you’ve been around for a bit: What changed for you started using the tools taught here and you stopped writing blindly?

I just got off a call that was supposed to be coaching me on how to make great YouTube content, but the call was way too vague and sales-y for my taste. And reminded me of what I DON'T want to be doing here. This call was basically "Make great content" and you eventually, somehow the algorithm will reward you! But no examples of great content were provided and I found the whole thing fairly useless. Then when the presenter told us we'd need 10 MILLION watch hours on YouTube shorts to be able to monetize, it was apparent they had no real idea what they were talking about. The whole thing made me feel this: If you're going to preach how to do something, SHOW ME SPECIFICALLY how you did it yourself. And SHOW ME SPECIFIC examples of how other people did it. Period. I have plenty of movies I wrote that I'm happy to give examples from in future sessions. How characters were set up, why the audience tied into them emotionally, and the thought process I and my partner used to do that. I want to have kind of a MUST KNOW library of movies to teach from here. I refer to Signs and Toy Story 2 often, because they are masterfully crafted, but I want us to have a community list of movies we are pretty much all familiar with ... and then I will search out the ones I can find scripts for, so we can see SPECIFICALLY what the writers did in creating the characters and scenes we love. This will be part of the classroom/community/coaching philosophy going forward. If you want to be involved and grow as a writer, you'll abolutely need to show up and do the work required - including knowing specific movies and reading the scripts! If you want to be a writer, this should be FUN homework and will really allow us to grow as a community going forward since we'll have a common film language. With that in mind, what are 5 movies you absolutely love and why. I'll create a master list of films and scripts and coaching sessions built around these! So, let's hear it!

I'm also a gym rat, love mountain biking, theater in NYC with my daughter and talking history with my son. Oh, and I have the privilege of coaching some damn, fine creative people! Oh, and I'm in Santa Monica. My Desert Island Movies are: Interstellar Raising Arizona Being John Malkovich How about you? If so inspired, drop a pic of you and your workspace or fave hobby below so we can all get to know each other better!