The Academy
THE LESSON CATALOG
Every lesson behind Your Assigned Path, open to everyone and free. Each one is a written guide, a before-and-after example from real pages, and writing exercises you fill in with your script open. 20 lessons · 476 minutes · 42 exercises.
Foundations
Want versus Need: the engine under your protagonist
Fixes: The protagonist is reactive, or the ending feels unearned.
8 min 3 exercises
Foundations
The premise pressure-test
Fixes: The premise is hard to state cleanly, or two stories are competing inside one script.
20 min 2 exercises
Foundations
The ruling passion: building a character out of contradiction
Fixes: Characters behave consistently but predictably, and conflict has to be imported by the plot.
45 min 2 exercises
Foundations
Theme without a speech
Fixes: A character explains the message out loud, or the ending has nothing to say.
25 min 3 exercises
Structure & Pacing
Diagnosing the second-act sag
Fixes: The middle drifts, or readers put the script down around page 55.
9 min 2 exercises
Structure & Pacing
The sequence approach: eight small endings
Fixes: The script has an act structure on paper but no shape while reading.
40 min 2 exercises
Structure & Pacing
Reading a produced script for structure
Fixes: Turning points land late, or the script's shape does not match its genre.
60 min 2 exercises
Structure & Pacing
Stakes that escalate
Fixes: Setbacks are interchangeable, or the ending feels no bigger than the middle.
20 min 2 exercises
Character & Dialogue
Killing the on-the-nose line
Fixes: Characters announce their feelings, or everyone sounds the same.
7 min 2 exercises
Character & Dialogue
The name-cover test: making voices separate
Fixes: Every character sounds like the writer, or dialogue is interchangeable between roles.
15 min 2 exercises
Character & Dialogue
Studying a dialogue master, usefully
Fixes: Dialogue is functional but flat, and study time produces admiration instead of technique.
50 min 2 exercises
Character & Dialogue
Opposition that is a person
Fixes: The antagonist is absent, passive, or evil for no stated reason.
20 min 2 exercises
Craft on the Page
Action lines that direct the reader's eye
Fixes: Description is dense, novelistic, or tells us what cannot be filmed.
6 min 2 exercises
Craft on the Page
Scene economy: enter late, leave early
Fixes: Scenes take a page to start, or end after the point has been made.
25 min 2 exercises
Craft on the Page
Formatting as competence
Fixes: The pages look amateur before a single line has been judged.
30 min 2 exercises
Craft on the Page
The first ten pages
Fixes: Readers do not commit early, and the story question arrives too late.
20 min 2 exercises
Professional Preparation
The logline that actually earns a read
Fixes: The premise is hard to summarise, or the pitch describes plot rather than hook.
6 min 2 exercises
Professional Preparation
Finding your three comparables
Fixes: The script has no stated audience, or comps are aspirational rather than accurate.
30 min 2 exercises
Professional Preparation
The query that gets opened
Fixes: Queries go unanswered, or read as mass-mailed.
25 min 2 exercises
Professional Preparation
Submit, compare, repeat
Fixes: Rewrites happen on instinct, with no evidence that anything improved.
15 min 2 exercises