Though 2019 has yet to bow its last, registration is now open for Winter 2020. Now is the time to think about what your writing goals for 2020 will be, and what steps you can take to achieve them. We have a wide array of new classes for Winter, in addition to our core courses and other exciting electives, sure to fit your writing needs.

Reminder that if you register early, most classes are eligible for a discount, and since most of our class sizes are small to allow for an intimate workshop environment, we recommend registering before the December holidays – classes start the week of January 6, 2020!

WRITERS STUDIO

This year we’ve added two new classes to our intensive Writers Studio. Like all Studio courses, these are designed to give you ten weeks’ worth of instruction in four days, along with an unforgettable experience communing with fellow writers in Westwood Village, Los Angeles. In addition to these new courses, there are several instructors joining our longtime roster in teaching the Writers Studio for the first time.

Structuring Your Story with Jeanne De Vita
While there are numerous ways to organize and map out your story, structure is a foundational building block that is essential in understanding how a story is crafted. This course will explore two popular narrative forms and their structure, giving you the instruction and inspiration to work within these conventions, or break them.
Reg# 371056

Marketing and PR for Writers and Agents with Katie Dunham
Whether you’re looking to be a literary agent, book publicist, or an author who wants to know more about marketing your work (which, in today’s landscape is something every author needs to be familiar with), this will be an invaluable course.
Reg# 371049

CREATIVE WRITING

Translation I with Elisa Wouk Almino
As long as writers write, there will be a need for translators of their work. However, translation is not a strict, word-for-word discipline and translators need to know the nuances of all languages they are translating to and from to do it successfully. This course will provide essential basics of translation coupled with techniques perfected by well-known translators and exercises to get you started translating pieces on your own.
Reg# 371362 – Classroom (UCLA)

The Art of Creative Research with Shawna Kenney
The wealth of resources available to writers for research is greater than ever. But how do you know what’s helpful (and correct) for your project and what isn’t? This class will help you navigate the wide world of research resources and techniques to start compiling quality resources for your current, and future, projects. 
Reg# 371316 – Online

Inspiring Our Muse: Nurturing the Writer Within with Daniel Jaffe
A lot of becoming a writer, and writing consistently, has to do with discipline. However, it often goes hand in hand with the need for inspiration. You can write everyday and still not feel inspired to write, but the muse doesn’t have to be elusive — you can make it work for you, not on its own whims, and this class will give you some tools to access and nurture it.
Reg# 371396 – Saturday, Feb. 29 – Classroom (Westwood)

How to Create Original Middle Grade Concepts: Two Weekend Intensive with Henry Lien
This one day workshop is sure to get your creative juices flowing — seriously, have you ever seen Henry Lien read his work? Come with an open mind, leave with a polished concept for a middle grade novel.
Reg# 371409 – Saturday & Sunday, Feb. 1 & 2; Mar. 7 & 8 – Classroom (Westwood)

The Art of Craft, the Secrets of Revision—Toward Publication with Suzanne Lummis
This intermediate-level workshop will help writers of poetry refine their work by looking at aspects of imagery, pacing, language, layout, and more. An exploration of what various editors look for in publishing poetry will round out the polishing of your work.
Reg# 371545 – Classroom (UCLA)

Writer Friendly Careers with Seth Fischer, Jeanne De Vita, Eve Porinchak, Katie Dunham, Julia Callahan, and Tobi Harper
This panel with writers, editors, agents, and publishers will offer insight and practical career advice about areas of book creation beyond being an author.
Reg# 371415 – Saturday, Feb. 8 – Classroom (Westwood)

SCREENWRITING

The Art & Craft of Creating a Compelling Logline with Diane Drake
You may think your first few pages, or a tight treatment, are the make-or-break items for your script, but often it can be the logline. If you can’t succinctly summarize your project in a compelling manner, you may never get those pages seen by agents or execs. This one-day class will teach how you to develop strong loglines, and give you time to come up with some for feedback on the day.
Reg# 371687 – Saturday, Jan. 18 – Classroom (UCLA)

Writing Character Descriptions with Roz Weisberg
Character descriptions should be brief, interesting, and accurate. But how do you know you’re describing a character in a compelling way that isn’t reducing them to a trope or stereotype? How do you know when to be coy versus when to be direct? And how do your word choices reflect the trajectory of the character, they narrative, and the actor who will play them? Well, you can start by learning some protips in this class.
Reg# 371690 – Saturday, Feb. 8 – Classroom (UCLA)

Building Compelling Story Settings with Tom Pinchuk
Craft and interesting narrative. Develop strong characters. Keep an eye on the pacing. All important aspects of screenwriting — but there’s also the where of your story. Location can be as strong a character as your protagonist, and this course will explore existing narratives of this nature while helping you strengthen your own skills in creating dynamic settings for your scripts. 
Reg# 371139 – Classroom (UCLA)

Introduction to Screenwriting with Michael Weiss
A screenwriting-oriented course similar to Introduction to Creative Writing. Over the course of six weeks, you’ll learn about various types of writing for screen and audio mediums, hear from experts, and experiment with writing for each style.
Reg# 371051 – 6 weeks – Classroom (UCLA)

Mastering Your Story by Revising the Screenplay with John Henry Davis
This advanced course will work off what students learn in our Fundamentals of Story course to workshop the rewriting of a full feature film script — from page one to done.
Reg# 371050 – Classroom (UCLA)

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