Lessons & tutorials
Real lessons, not vibes
Every lesson is taught here, on site: a narrated screening built from the actual lesson script — captions, speed control, chapter jumps and resume from where you left off — plus the key points written out and a drill you run on your own work today.
Lesson 1 — How to sit down: building the writing loop
Most people don't fail at writing, they fail at starting. A loop is a fixed time, a fixed place, and a fixed first move so you never negotiate with yourself again.
Lesson 2 — Scene vs summary: the engine of prose
A scene happens in real time with a want, an obstacle and a turn. Summary compresses. Beginners summarise everything and wonder why it feels flat.
Lesson 3 — Point of view and psychic distance
POV isn't just 'first or third'. Psychic distance is how close the camera sits to the character's mind, and sliding it deliberately is what makes prose feel controlled.
Lesson 4 — Revision in passes: one job at a time
Revising everything at once is why revision feels impossible. Professionals make separate passes, each with a single question.
Lesson 5 — Anatomy of a hook
A hook is a short, repeatable, singable idea that carries the song's promise. It usually lives in the title and lands in the same place every chorus.
Lesson 6 — Prosody: making words and music agree
Prosody is the marriage of stress, meaning and melody. When the important syllable lands on the strong beat, listeners feel truth even if they can't name why.
Lesson 7 — Section jobs: verse, pre-chorus, chorus, bridge
Every section has one job. Songs stall when two sections do the same job — usually a verse that already says what the chorus is for.
Lesson 8 — Writing to a beat: finding the pocket
The instrumental already has a rhythm of speech built into it. Your job is to find where the vocal wants to sit and write into that space, not over it.
Lesson 9 — Narrating your own work
Narration is both a product and a diagnostic. Sentences that trip the narrator are sentences the reader was already tripping over silently.
Lesson 10 — Scoping: defining done
Unfinished work is almost always unscoped work. Done needs a number, a format and a date, or the project expands forever.
Lesson 11 — Subtext: what characters don't say
Flat dialogue happens when people say exactly what they mean. Subtext is want colliding with what's socially possible to say.
Lesson 12 — Taking feedback without losing the work
Readers are reliable about where they lost interest and unreliable about how to fix it. Learn to translate reaction into diagnosis.
Lesson 13 — The logline: the gate every script has to pass
Nobody in film or television reads page one until the sentence works. A logline carries a protagonist, a goal, opposition and irony — in under 35 words.
Lesson 14 — Format, sluglines and white space
Format is how you prove you're not green. Sluglines, present-tense action, lean parentheticals — and white space, because dense pages get skimmed.
Lesson 15 — Dialogue that dodges: subtext on stage and screen
People rarely say what they mean, especially when it matters most. Scenes come alive when characters negotiate sideways and the audience does the math.