tv WRITING CLASSES

Each week your instructor will give you a lesson about a particular writing tool each week, and then a corresponding assignment to apply to your project. You will also receive weekly peer feedback and instructor critique, providing you with an honest evaluation of your material in a dynamic and supportive environment.

Expect to work hard. Televisionary is more demanding than your average entry-level writing course. You’ll learn about hooks, arena, loglines, pitching, story structure, act outs, character development, dynamic relationships, stakes, dilemma, theme and more. You can work on a TV spec or an original pilot.

Televisionary is our most popular course. It will prepare you for life as a professional writer. All of our successful alumni have taken this course, many of them several times. As Rowan Wheeler says in our introductory video, the techniques you learn in Televisionary will sustain you throughout your career.

On Zoom we offer two tiers—Tier 1 is the full course with lessons + feedback, while Tier 2 students only attend lectures but receive no feedback on their projects, nor do they see Tier 1 students’ feedback.

5 weeks /12 writers max (Tier 1) or unlimited (Tier 2)

For the next Televisionary Class, please check the Class Calendar.

Over the ten-session class you will go from seed of an idea to a first draft. It’s a cross between Televisionary and a Pilot Lab class.

In the first 4 weeks, you will complete and get feedback on Script Anatomy’s signature tools. Next, the focus shifts to “breaking” your story, honing your tracks and beats, exactly as it’s done in a professional writers room. The last two classes will take you to outline and then to first draft. This process of this class will perfectly prepare you for what it’s like to work on a show as a professional writer. It will also give you the skills you’ll need when you sell your first pilot.

10 weeks / 9 writers max

Beginners welcome!

For the next Pilot Bootcamp please check the Class Calendar.

In the prep week you hand in your outline and read a comedy or drama script chosen by the instructor. In Week One you receive notes on your outlines from peers and your instructor. In Weeks Two and Three, you receive notes on the first and second halves of your script. Along the way you’ll review and fine-tune core elements like structure, dynamic relationships and so on.

If you have a draft that needs to be rewritten, or you just want deadlines and feedback as you head into draft, this course will help. You’ll get that unfinished project written and polished while reviewing core structure and other key elements.

For a student’s perspective see Hannah Rosner’s testimonial video.

1 week prep + 3 weeks / 8 writers max

Required: Televisionary or equivalent experience.

For the next TV Spec & Pilot Draft Intensive, please check the Class Calendar.

This class runs like a professional writers room. You’ll put your story on the board and pitch it to the class just like in a proper writers room. And at every stage, you will work the Script Anatomy tools and get notes. Along the way, there will be lessons about writing and also about aspects of the business like breaking in, managing your representation and so on.

Students are required to devote time to homework and writing, and to reading other classmates’ work to provide feedback. They are expected to actively participate in the development and story breaking process. In a professional writers room, you must participate if you want to keep your job! Working this muscle will benefit you.

This class is designed to prepare you for your first job writing for TV. As our alumni attest, the experience is invaluable.

2 week prep + 6 weeks / 8 writers max

Required: Televisionary or equivalent experience.

For the next TV Comedy Pilot Lab, please check the Class Calendar.

This class runs like a professional writers room. You’ll put your story on the board and pitch it to the class just like in a proper writers room. And at every stage of the process, you will work the Script Anatomy tools and get notes. Along the way, there will be lessons about writing and also about aspects of the business like breaking in, managing your representation and so on.

Students are required to devote time to homework and writing, and to reading other classmates’ work to provide feedback. They are expected to actively participate in the development and story breaking process. In a professional writers room, you must participate if you want to keep your job! Working this muscle will benefit you.

This class is designed to prepare you for your first job writing for TV. And it works. Check out Lisa Bao’s video.

2 week prep + 6 weeks / 8 writers max

Required: Televisionary or equivalent experience.

For the next TV Drama Pilot Lab will be, please check the Class Calendar.

We go from concept to finished draft in 4 weeks with 2 weeks of prep before class begins. Like all our labs, the pace is fast, like a professional writers room. Every writer is expected to actively participate: read materials, pitch ideas, give notes, and work together to help your fellow screenwriters. In a professional writers room, participation is key!

Using Script Anatomy’s tools, you will work at a pace expected in the TV industry. It will require devoting time outside class to writing, homework and, at certain points, reading other classmates’ material to give feedback.

Script Anatomy’s record with the TV Writing Fellowship programs is second to none. For a student’s perspective see Hannah Rosner’s testimonial video.

2 weeks prep + 4 weeks / 8 writers max

Required: Televisionary or equivalent experience.

For the next TV Spec Lab, please check the Class Calendar.

To “break story” means coming up with all the scenes—or beats—for your episode, and then pitching those beats on the board, while the rest of the room weighs in with fixes and solutions for story problems. Structure Lab mimics that process, but for your pilot. You’ll learn to troubleshoot a story that isn’t working, and you’ll get feedback on how you pitch ideas and conduct yourself in a room. You’ll also have six other writers help with story structure.

This lab is an invaluable preparation for life as a TV writer. You would never build a house without proper blue prints. Pilot writing is no different. In Sasha Feiler’s testimonial video, the Adult Swim writer calls it “the best TV writing class I’ve ever taken.”

8 weeks 8 writers max

Required: Televisionary or equivalent experience.

For the next Structure Lab, please check the Class Calendar.

Before the first class begins, writers need to hand in their drafts and receive notes on their scripts. Then the first 5 weeks will be guided classes in which the instructor and your peers will help you work the tools and give you honest notes on your material. You’ll learn techniques to fine tune every element — concept, structure, theme, dynamic relationships, scene work, dialogue, scene to scene transitions, act-outs and so on. We encourage students to apply these techniques to Act 1 first to see how it gets stronger.

Then you get 2 weeks off to complete your rewrite, before the final 3 weeks when professional actors will perform table reads of your work. You will see your words come to life, an exciting and invaluable experience for any writer. Post the table read, your instructor will send you written notes on your entire revised script.

For a student’s perspective on this class see the testimonial videos by Michael Robin and Claire Bauman.

8 weeks / 8 writers max

Required: Televisionary or equivalent experience.

For the next Rewrite Lab, please check the Class Calendar.

Pitching and writing are very different skill sets. Instructor Kevin Townsley has set up shows at SyFy, Crackle, Pivot, Sony, CBS Studios, Warner Brothers, FOX 21 and Fremantle. He has worked with Silver Pictures (Joel Silver), Divide Pictures (Milo Ventimiglia), That’s Wonderful Productions (Jim Parson) and Wonderland Sound and Vision (McG). He devised this fast-paced crash course to pull back the curtain on a process that is usually experienced only by high level screenwriters and executives.

You will learn all the rudiments of pitching— how to reverse engineer your idea into a written and verbal pitch, how to hook and engage your audience from the get-go, tricks for memorizing and what to expect “in the room”. You’ll watch Kevin pitch a project he is going out with this season. Then you’ll have the invaluable experience of pitching your own TV show to the class and receiving feedback.

4 weeks prep 8 writers max

Required: Must have taken a Script Anatomy Class.

For the next Pilot Pitch Lab, please check the Class Calendar.

Are you about to finish a season of the show you’ve been working on, but don’t have strong sample to get your next job? Perhaps you haven’t staffed in a while and need that undeniable new sample to excite your reps? Or maybe you’re looking to write a sample out of your normal wheelhouse and need some guidance?

Masterclass is designed for writers who want a level of experience in the peer notes, and the opportunity to extend their networks within the industry. Working writers have always returned to Script Anatomy for the deadlines, the toolwork and the step by step feedback. We began this class because of popular demand.

Over a 6 week intensive, with 2 weeks of prep work, you’ll use Script Anatomy’s tools to develop, outline and write the first draft of your pilot. You are required to meet all deadlines, read other writers’s work and come ready to discuss it. The class is run like a writers room.

6 weeks / 8 writers max

Required: Must have been staffed on a show or sold a pilot.

For the next Master Class: TV Drama Pilot Lab, please check the Class Calendar.