This Week: Story Development and Outlining

[Script Magazine]

Go from premise to story

📆 June 18 - July 16, 2026 Go From Premise to Story. The most intelligent and intriguing premise in the world is only that—just a premise—until it’s been given a shape that draws an audience in and keeps its attention and investment. Until it’s given a protagonist through which the audience understands the premise in concrete terms, and feels the clearly-defined stakes, someone with whom they can identify and for whom they can cheer. In other words, until the premise has become a story.  This course will examine plotting a screenplay from premise to story. You'll learn how to take your screenplay from the early stages of building an idea to a full story, ways to structure the story to keep tension and investment high, and strategies to build not only structure but texture in the world of your film. You'll work to discover how to create an experience of the world, including what the events and the world of the story mean for characters and audience alike, rather than just building up a point-by-point plot. How a protagonist is driven by both external and internal motivations How to use—and go beyond—3-Act structure How the scene is the essential unit of film storytelling, and how each scene contains its own arc How a writer builds not just structure but the texture of story and world How to ratchet up tension and re-raise stakes throughout a screenplay The importance of making unexpected moves to keep the writer surprised and invested as much as the audience Writers wanting to get from initial concept to full story in just four weeks Writers who want to understand how primary and secondary genres suggest structure and arc Anyone who wants to ratchet up tension and re-raise stakes throughout a screenplay Story Development & Outlining with Lynn Grant Beck June 18 - July 16, 2026 Enroll Now! Meet the instructor: Lynn Grant Beck Lynn is a Professor of Screenwriting in the MFA graduate program at Pepperdine University and has also taught Writing the Television Pilot at Santa Monica College. Lynn also has significant industry experience as Vice President of Production at Kopelson Productions, and Creative Executive at Interscope Communications.  She just completed a new feature thriller, Quiet Night. Her latest sci-fi TV series, Fuzion, is currently being pitched to broadcast and streaming networks. The TV series, Hashers, was commissioned by Google VP, Jim Kolotouros. Her TV movie thriller, My Mom is a Bank Robber, aired on Lifetime in 2016 and her TV movie rom-com, 12 Gifts of Christmas aired on the Hallmark Channel in 2015. Active Interest Media 2143 Grand Ave Des Moines, IA 50312 USA View online You received this email because you are subscribed to emails from Script Magazine Update your email preferences to choose the types of emails you receive.