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.

The forge analysis for my feature. 👀😍 This is awesome really! First off, listening to it out loud there are bits I can hear I want to change. - how yet I’m not sure. And the question to tighten certain bits is so helpful. ( along with everyone’s notes from yesterday ) I’m going to give myself a day or two ( probably a day as everytime I say a few days it ends up being a day or a few hours before I go in and make changes. ) but I’m going to give myself some time to to just think. Or not think. And come back with even more ideas. I’m finding the more of the story I have ( I have the full story down ) but The scenes inbetween are harder to tighten. ( especially the scenes I shared yesterday) But this is part of the process. It’s like a puzzle 👀 This is awesome work David this app is so handy. 👀 Thank you sm. 🥰

Ways to improve and rewrite uploaded document for a TV series pilot.

Curious if the PrimalForgeGPT is required or just a recommendation? New to this as of today.

When I asked Primal Forge GPT about my screenplay, it came up with this: A coming-of-age story that arrives 30 years late, disguised as a rugby reunion comedy. And this: After an injury and loss unravel her life, a woman returns to the rugby team she left behind decades earlier and discovers the men she thought had rejected her had been protecting her all along. I added this line: She learns that sometimes the worst thing that can happen to you is the best thing for you. Because that is what kept me going as I recovered from my injury and life unraveling into something surprising. And thanks to this amazing group, the guidance given and the tools available, I just finished my first screenplay in record time and without the emotional blockages I had when trying to fit in the "Hero's Journey" structure. I followed the "Wound-Lie-Reveal" structure that @David Stem created, and it was exactly what I needed! I have been working on this as a memoir for decades, encountering lots of emotional upheaval. I previously made a documentary film about the rugby players, and my agent said to cut my stories out. Now I have completed a feature film screenplay that I truly enjoyed creating and hope others will enjoy reading and, fingers crossed, watching. I am living by the words of Hunter S. Thompson, a friend to and client of my rugby brothers: "Life should not be a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in a pretty and well-preserved body, but rather to skid in broadside in a cloud of smoke, thoroughly used up, totally worn out, and loudly proclaiming 'Wow! What a ride!'" This has been such a wild ride, and I am so grateful to be here!