THE COURSE

This course will closely follow the method Paul uses when he rewrites his own scripts and when he supervises student rewrites. The course will be based on Paul's book, Rewrite, which will be published in March, 2008, but class will focus on the needs of the students. Students will be limited to one script for the session. One month before the course, students must mail a copy of the script to be rewritten so that Paul can read it before the start of the course.

The course is open to 6 to 8 students. Each seminar will be three hours long, Monday through Friday, though there will be at least an hour a day of formal office hours in which to discuss individual issues. The first Sunday morning, there will be a short orientation and a longer discussion of the scripts, one on one, to jump start the process. Expect to be writing Sunday afternoon and reading Monday morning.

Tentative class hours are 5-8 PM, with dinner to follow. Mornings will be for writing. Afternoons will be for more writing or reading each others' pages, or trips to local villages.* Class hours may change according to student preferences, but will be discussed as a group.

The course will cover (straight out of the Rewrite Table of Contents):

• Clarifying Story and Structure for Impact
• The Powerful Protagonist
• The Worthy Antagonist
• Ensuring Dynamic Scenes
• Making Descriptions Leap off the page
• Life Support for Your Protagonist
• Paring It Down
• Where Am I?
• The Right Look
• Finishing

Of course we will review your new pages every day. With any luck and a demonic intensity, you should be able to finish a complete rewrite in the time allotted. If not, you will definitely have a blueprint for your new draft and probably be many pages into it.

Printers and paper will be provided. There will be no Internet access in the house, but Internet cafes are available in nearby towns.

*Transportation will not be provided (except to a very limited degree). Please see DIRECTIONS for more information.