7d (edited) • General discussion
🔥What Film Schools Don’t Teach - A Writer's Forge Intensive Seminar - Sign Up Below!
Enrollment LIMITED, Closes SOON.
Most of you have seen me coach writers in this community.
You've watched me take a character that felt flat, confused, or inconsistent… and in minutes the entire story unlocks. Suddenly the writer knows exactly what their hero wants, why they're stuck, and what the film is actually about.
Here's the truth:
That's not intuition.
That's not magic.
It's a system I built over 25 years of pitching and landing writing jobs on massive studio films — the kind everyone in Hollywood is fighting for.
I call it Emotional Authorship — and until now, I've never taught it publicly.
👉 ENROLL NOW — $397
Go to Classroom → "Emotional Authorship Intensive"
⸻
What Emotional Authorship Actually Is
Most writing tools focus on plot structure (Save the Cat, Hero's Journey, etc).
But structure is useless without a story that has a beating heart.
Structure tells you what happens.
It does not tell you why it matters — to your character or to your audience.
Emotional Authorship is the missing layer.
It's the framework behind every major film I've written or rewritten:
Shrek 2, Jimmy Neutron, The Rugrats Movies, Are We There Yet?, The Smurfs, Disenchanted —
and it's why studios kept calling me when the scripts they developed weren't landing.
The system comes down to three elements:
⸻
1. The Wound 💔
Sometimes the Wound is trauma.
More often it's naivete — a mistaken belief about how the world works.
Example: Shrek isn't relatable because he's an ogre.
He's relatable because he's the ultimate bachelor — living a self-protective life that hides deep fear. He's convinced he doesn't need anyone.
That's his wound.
Fiona's wound mirrors the other side of the same insecurity:
She believes no matter how she presents herself on the outside, she'll never be enough as she truly is.
That's universal — and why audiences connected so deeply.
⸻
2. The Lie 🎭
The Lie is the internal logic built from the Wound:
• "People leave."
• "I must earn love."
• "I'm not enough."
• "Only I can solve this."
• "I'm better off alone."
The Lie drives every choice. It creates the plot.
Shrek's Lie — I'm better off alone — makes him build emotional (and literal) walls.
Fiona's Lie — I'm not enough as I really am — makes her hide who she is.
Their Lies collide, and the truth cracks them open.
That fear of being truly seen — and still not enough — is primal. Every member of the audience feels it.
Structure didn't create Shrek.
Emotional truth did.
⸻
3. Healing ✨
This is what the story is actually about.
Not plot resolution — emotional resolution.
Shrek's healing:
It's safe to let someone in. Isolation isn't strength — it's fear.
Fiona's healing:
You don't have to be perfect to be loved. You have to be real.
That emotional alignment is why the film hit every demographic.
⸻
The Part Most Writers Miss
The audience doesn't care about your character.
They care about themselves.
When your character's internal journey mirrors something true inside your audience, the story lands on a primal level.
When the emotional core is true, the plot becomes inevitable.
⸻
Why This Was the Key to My Career 🎬
When studios hired me to fix a script, I didn't start with structure.
I started with what I call The Primal Questions:
1. What's the wound or ignorance?
2. What lie did it create?
3. What would healing look like?
Every great story either breaks the character
or forces them to heal in some primal way.
These questions let me find that engine in minutes.
Not:
• "Is the midpoint on page 55?"
• "Is the All Is Lost in the right place?"
But:
• "Is this character built from emotional truth?"
If no — nothing else mattered.
If yes — everything aligned.
This lens shaped my entire career.
⸻
THE INSIDE SCOOP (THE REAL INDUSTRY METHOD) 🎥
Let me be blunt:
This is the actual methodology that got me hired on the biggest films of my career.
Studios didn't hire me because I had clever thoughts about plot.
They hired me because I could walk into a room, diagnose a broken character, and articulate the emotional fix that made the movie work.
This is the side of the job writers never get taught — even in film school.
And for the first time, I'm teaching it.
⸻
Why Writers Struggle Without This
You can nail structure.
You can outline beautifully.
You can color-code your board until it looks like an FBI case wall.
And still… the story doesn't move people.
Because structure can't fix a shallow emotional spine.
Most writers build from the outside in.
Emotional Authorship teaches you to build from the inside out.
That shift changes everything.
⸻
What You'll Learn in This Intensive 📚
⸻
SESSION 1 — THE FRAMEWORK (90 min)
Tuesday, Dec 16 — 6pm PT / 9pm ET
• Why characters resonate on a primal level
• Identifying the real wound
• Wound vs. Ignorance
• How the Lie drives behavior
• Why plot fixes fail
• The 3 Primal Questions
⸻
SESSION 2 — APPLICATION WORKSHOP (90 min)
Thursday, Dec 18 — 6pm PT / 9pm ET
• Break down iconic characters
• Apply Emotional Authorship to Shrek, Toy Story, Signs, and more
• Diagnose your protagonist
• Live coaching
• How emotional truth makes structure inevitable
⸻
SESSION 3 — HOT SEAT COACHING (60 min)
Tuesday, Dec 23 — 6pm PT / 9pm ET
• Bring your script
• Watch the method in real time
• Learn from others
• Get clarity on your pages
⸻
🎁 FOUNDING MEMBER BONUS
30-Minute 1:1 Treatment Review With Me
(Only for this cohort)
Because you're helping shape the full 6-week Writer's Journey launching in 2025, you get a personal 30-minute session with me.
Use it to:
• Diagnose your emotional spine
• Clarify wound → lie → healing
• Get targeted notes on your treatment or concept
• Identify what needs deeper excavation
A full script-level diagnostic is my standard $349 session — but this Founding Member bonus covers your treatment or concept and is included at no extra cost.
This bonus never returns.
⸻
🤖 BONUS: THE PRIMAL FORGE GPT
Get access to The Primal Forge GPT — a custom AI trained on the Emotional Authorship methodology.
Use it to:
• Diagnose your character's emotional spine anytime
• Apply The Primal Questions to new projects
• Get instant feedback between coaching sessions
• Strengthen your emotional instincts as you write
This GPT will be updated with everything taught in the intensive, giving you an always-available diagnostic partner.
⸻
What You Get ✅
✓ Access to all recordings
✓ Emotional Authorship workbook + diagnostic tools
✓ Access to The Primal Forge GPT
✓ Intimate, interactive cohort
✓ 30-minute 1:1 treatment review with me
⸻
What Writers Say 💬
"David coached me on a pilot I'd written and I was constantly amazed at how he was able to take every scene I'd written and just deepen them and take them to an entirely different level. He taught me to really look under the surface of what was happening to the characters and see what was really driving them on a primal level. I never would have reached the depths this script went to without his coaching!"
— Mariana
"David's thoughts on my script have been incredibly helpful in identifying what works and what doesn't and giving me clarity on what I want to change moving forward without just telling me exactly what to do. His coaching helps with figuring out what the core elements and heart of your story are and how to highlight and elevate that so you can tell the story you want to tell. I am so grateful for David's help on my script and this community in general!"
— Magenta Rose Brown
"Your coaching + insight and perspective has been so helpful in identifying elements that could be improved on as well as suggesting creative solutions. It's hard to read the label from inside the jar as they say, and unless you've already established a community of experienced screenwriters, it is SO difficult to get useful feedback."
— Elliot Evans
⸻
The Investment 💰
Private coaching: $349 per session
Weekend random-ass workshop taught by fake guru who's never sold shit: $500–$1,200
USC semester: $5,000+
This Intensive includes:
• 4.5 hours of live teaching
• Access to recordings
• Tools you'll use forever
• Real-time diagnosis
• Community access
• A 1:1 treatment review with me
• The Primal Forge GPT
Regular price: $797
Black Friday Founding Members: $397
50% off.
One payment.
This price never returns.
⸻
Who This Is For 🎯
Writers who:
• Have a script, treatment, or concept in development
• Know structure but feel something's missing
• Want emotional depth and clarity
• Want characters audiences actually feel
If you're still exploring an idea, you'll get value —
but you'll get the most if you're working on something now.
⸻
The Path Forward — Why This Matters Now ⏰
Most writers wait:
"I should finish my draft first."
"I'll focus after the holidays."
"I'll take the next one."
No.
The draft you're writing right now is the one that needs this.
If the emotional spine isn't clear, every scene becomes harder.
Rewrites become guesswork.
Plot keeps shifting because the character is broken.
This framework gives you the one thing no beat sheet ever will:
A story that feels inevitable.
⸻
Coming Early 2025: The 6-Week Writer's Journey 🚀
This Intensive is the foundation of a larger 6-week, 12-session program coming early 2025 — a complete system for becoming a working writer.
Founding Members get:
• First access
• A significant discount
• A voice in what's built
⸻
⏰ Enrollment Closes Monday, Dec 2 at Midnight PT
Price jumps to $797 after that — permanently.
Sessions:
• Tue, Dec 16 — 6pm PT / 9pm ET
• Thu, Dec 18 — 6pm PT / 9pm ET
• Tue, Dec 23 — 6pm PT / 9pm ET
⸻
👉 ENROLL NOW — $397
Go to Classroom → "Emotional Authorship Intensive"
⸻
Be Legendary,
J. David Stem
Emmy-Nominated Writer
$2.5B Box Office | Shrek 2 | Rugrats | Jimmy Neutron | The Smurfs | Disenchanted
8
9 comments
🔥What Film Schools Don’t Teach - A Writer's Forge Intensive Seminar - Sign Up Below!
Leaderboard (30-day)
1
+64
2
+63
3
+53
4
+50
5
+46
Powered by