communique
 
Writers Boot Camp Basic Training
Commit 10 hours per week for 12 weeks from
Project Start Through First Draft & Two Rewrites.
 
Writers Boot Camp's Basic Training provides comprehensive writing fundamentals while you write a first draft plus two rewrites of your feature-length, TV pilot, web series--or even a book outline, style sheet and sample chapters. (In addition to the feature film and television credits, our alumni have hundreds of books and novels published.) As of 2020, Basic Training is the official start of Pro Membership in LA. (On your first call with a staff member, the conversation will establish your short-term and longer-term creative goals to mutually determine eligibility for Pro Membership.)
 
During this current period of coronavirus mitigation, all LA sessions normally including in-person meetings will meet via teleconference only. 
There will be a total of six weekly teleconferences starting on: 

Thursday, October 22 from 5pm-7:30 PST
 
In addition to the direct support of founder Jeffrey Gordon, Basic Training includes a workbook and weekly Office Hours via phone and email with a staff member for individual support for questions and creative reinforcement. While Basic Training is great for a quick visit to L.A. while taking industry meetings, the same Basic Training process is also available One-on-One as soon as you have 10 hours available each week instead of waiting for a session start date. One-on-One writers, if not participating within the group remotely, have additional access to videos of our 25th Anniversary session presented by founder Jeffrey Gordon in October 2014. Instead of participating with the group, One-on-One writers who may want to start sooner will receive materials each week during the process with a mentor who has a second set of Office Hours to foster your creative progress. 

With either option, your first-draft deadline is in seven weeks from the day you start-and then your mentor supports your rewriting choices for the remaining five weeks until the overall deadline.
 
Here's how the weekly agenda breaks down:
 
Week 1: Basic Training establishes a professional writing approach with an intensive agenda, clear screenwriting definitions, work strategies and strict deadlines. Starting with as little as a single sentence, you'll start shaping your script idea, identify a 15-point checklist for building a complete story and articulating your Premise Line within the context of the professional industry, as well as begin defining the fresh entertainment (conceits) of your project.
 
Week 2: Obstacle Course defines a main-character driven, four segment (three-act) screenplay structure, as well as strategies for character development. Unique tools empower expression of your ideas in accessible, professional terms to create a more dynamic, layered adventure. Structure is also broken down for half-hour and hour-long television and articulates how the tools apply to any variation.
 
Week 3: Conflict Escalation helps you to write with a new understanding of the script page and format. You'll use a practical outlining approach to get past the opening of your script to develop the parts of the entire story, allowing you greater mobility between big-picture story points and smaller scene choices. You'll learn distinctions of movies and TV, including TV Pilot bible exercises, and an accelerated writing technique to quickly build the pages of your script-or any prose project.
 
Week 4:Trench Warfare pushes you through the middle pages, literally and structurally, to discover new possibilities while you write. Common First Draft Problems are identified to make you aware of many of the typical issues that every writer faces and that are a natural part of the writing process. A comprehensive evaluation checklist helps you review the tools you've learned to refine your project goals and reflect deeper thematic stakes in your scene choices.
 
Week 5: Character Crossfire tests the motivations of your principal characters and connects the supporting roles to your main character's journey. An advanced scene work checklist helps you evaluate your own style to get you writing more visually, leaving unnecessary material behind and making every part of your story entertaining as you anticipate writing additional pages through the deadline.
 
Weeks 6 & 7: After the last teleconference or release of Week 5 materials, you'll have three weeks to complete your first draft, or set of prose chapters. Office Hours will remain available for assistance through the overall deadline.
 
Weeks 8-12: At the equivalent of seven full weeks of your commitment of 10 hours per week, the LA group will meet to discuss the status of each writer's draft. The Two Levels of Rewriting will be reviewed to help each writer reset their creative goals over the remaining five weeks, identifying one Component Level Rewrite and One Craft Level Rewrite. One-on-One writers will do this individually on a previously scheduled conference call with their mentor.
 
D-Day/Script Deadline: You'll send a .pdf of your material for evaluation by the Writers Boot Camp staff. You'll prepare for an individual conference (30-45 minutes via phone) using the Evaluation Checklist learned in session to create a set of notes for your ongoing rewrite objectives.
 
In Basic Training you complete a first draft and two rewrites very quickly; while our full development and empowered rewriting process takes you through 10 drafts every six months--without quitting your day job!

 
For more information please call 310/998-1199.