How the 12 Step Works
The 12 Step Finish Your Damn Script program is a 12 month self-driven online writing course designed to give you an organized step-by-step method for starting, revising and finishing your script.
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Who is this class for?
- For folks who are just beginning the process of writing
- Folks who are looking for new ways to enter into the writing process
12 Step
Finish Your Damn Script
Outline
Step 1: Creating a Writer Process
Step 2: Organizing Your Time
Step 3: Structure: The Before & After
Step 4. Templates & Formats
Step 5. Great Writers Read Great Writers
Step 6: Write Into It
Step 7. The Art of Listening in the Silence
Step 8. The Psychology of the Character
Step 9. What is the Story You Want to Tell?
Step 10: Let's Go Deep into the Outline
Step 11. The Roshamon Technique
Step 12. The Business of Writing
- DreamingOutLoud Daily Writer's Ritual
- Identify Limiting Beliefs & Rewrite Your Story
Step 2: Organizing Your Time
- Find the time to write
- Optimize the writing time you do have to make every minute count
Step 3: Structure: The Before & After
- April's Outline Template to help you START Writing
- How to use an outline solve structural problems in the finished script
Step 4. Templates & Formats
- Industry Standard Screenplay Format
- Standard American Play Format
Step 5. Great Writers Read Great Writers
- BadAssWriter's Ultimate Reading List
Step 6: Write Into It
- Start with the Action
- Because Everything Else is Exposition (aka backstory, set-up)
Step 7. The Art of Listening in the Silence
- Learn how to listen so that the story that wants to be told can emerge organically
Step 8. The Psychology of the Character
- How to Avoid Talking Head Syndrome
- How to create complicated layered characters with a rich and specific human history that is alive with them in the present
Step 9. What is the Story You Want to Tell?
- Identifying the event, the action and transformation scene by scene
Step 10: Let's Go Deep into the Outline
- How to outline your final draft to clarify character arcs, plot points and the pace of the story.
Step 11. The Roshamon Technique
- How changing the POV creates conflict, stakes & story momentum
Step 12. The Business of Writing
- What Producers Are Looking For & How to Give it to Them
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Meet the Instructor
April Yvette Thompson is a Tony-winning producer/writer/actor working across media. Film/TV credits include BULL, Blue Caprice, Gotham, Blue Bloods, Babylon Fields, The Exonerated (w/Susan Sarandon & Delroy Lindo), Accidental Husband, Backwards, Babylon Fields, Law & Order & Third Watch, etc. Broadway/Off Broadway credits include Clybourne Park, (Pulitzer & Tony); Vassar Voices (w/Meryl Streep), Good Bread Alley, Liberty City The Exonerated(w/Gabriel Byrne, Richard Dreyfuss), Medea, King Lear, Macbeth, etc
As SimonSays Entertainment Director of Development, April produced Sundance features: Blue Caprice (w/Isaiah Washington), Mother of George (w/Danai Gurira), Gun Hill Road (w/Esai Morales). April was on the Tony-winning producing teams for 2017 Tony for Best Revival for August Wilson's Jitney directed by Ruben Santiago Hudson and 2012 Tony for Best Revival, Porgy & Bess starring Audra MacDonald (Tony).
April wrote, produced & starred in her Miami Trilogy of plays: Good Bread Alley and Liberty City (Drama Desk, Outer Critics, Lortel noms & Jeff Award) at New York Theatre Workshop. Her latest play, Black Lives is in development at NYTW. April has taught at Rutgers University, Vassar College, Harlem School of the Arts, University of Zimbabwe, Maggie Flanigan Studio and various Universities throughout the United States as a Teaching Artist for The Acting Company. April has served as Artist in Residence at Manhattan Theatre Club, 651 Arts, NYTW and Director/Founder of the The Children’s Defense Fund’s Fundi Freedom Schools where she developed Arts in Education Curriculum for 1500 at-risk students.
EDUCATION: Vassar College, BA and Rutgers University, MFA AprilYvetteThompson.com
April Yvette Thompson is a Tony-winning producer/writer/actor working across media. Film/TV credits include BULL, Blue Caprice, Gotham, Blue Bloods, Babylon Fields, The Exonerated (w/Susan Sarandon & Delroy Lindo), Accidental Husband, Backwards, Babylon Fields, Law & Order & Third Watch, etc. Broadway/Off Broadway credits include Clybourne Park, (Pulitzer & Tony); Vassar Voices (w/Meryl Streep), Good Bread Alley, Liberty City The Exonerated(w/Gabriel Byrne, Richard Dreyfuss), Medea, King Lear, Macbeth, etc
As SimonSays Entertainment Director of Development, April produced Sundance features: Blue Caprice (w/Isaiah Washington), Mother of George (w/Danai Gurira), Gun Hill Road (w/Esai Morales). April was on the Tony-winning producing teams for 2017 Tony for Best Revival for August Wilson's Jitney directed by Ruben Santiago Hudson and 2012 Tony for Best Revival, Porgy & Bess starring Audra MacDonald (Tony).
April wrote, produced & starred in her Miami Trilogy of plays: Good Bread Alley and Liberty City (Drama Desk, Outer Critics, Lortel noms & Jeff Award) at New York Theatre Workshop. Her latest play, Black Lives is in development at NYTW. April has taught at Rutgers University, Vassar College, Harlem School of the Arts, University of Zimbabwe, Maggie Flanigan Studio and various Universities throughout the United States as a Teaching Artist for The Acting Company. April has served as Artist in Residence at Manhattan Theatre Club, 651 Arts, NYTW and Director/Founder of the The Children’s Defense Fund’s Fundi Freedom Schools where she developed Arts in Education Curriculum for 1500 at-risk students.
EDUCATION: Vassar College, BA and Rutgers University, MFA AprilYvetteThompson.com
April has helped me uncover my voice as a writer. She works like a sculptor or an archeologist, patiently chipping away at the dust and old hardened clay to find the essential pieces. She helps you let go of all the things the brain holds onto that get in the way of story. Her advice is simple and stays with you which makes the world of writing a lot less scary and overwhelming. I have grown tremendously while working with April. I expects that the tips, tricks and advice I have learned from her will stay with me as I continue to shape and deepen my artistic voice." |
BONUSES
1. First full Draft of Your Script
2. April's Screenplay Format Template PLUS STEP-BY-STEP PLAY OUTLINE TEMPLATE
3. April's Standard American Play format Template PLUS STEP-BY-STEP PLAY OUTLINE TEMPLATE
4. Monthly BadAssWriter Newsletter
5. Live Q & A with April each MONTH
6. Q&A Forum with each MasterClass
7. Finish Your Damn Script Step-by-Step Marketing Handbook
8. Lifelong access to the entire class
9. Exclusive Membership in the BadAssWriters FB group
10. A recording of April's Focus, Finish & Fund Your Script 8 hours class
2. April's Screenplay Format Template PLUS STEP-BY-STEP PLAY OUTLINE TEMPLATE
3. April's Standard American Play format Template PLUS STEP-BY-STEP PLAY OUTLINE TEMPLATE
4. Monthly BadAssWriter Newsletter
5. Live Q & A with April each MONTH
6. Q&A Forum with each MasterClass
7. Finish Your Damn Script Step-by-Step Marketing Handbook
8. Lifelong access to the entire class
9. Exclusive Membership in the BadAssWriters FB group
10. A recording of April's Focus, Finish & Fund Your Script 8 hours class
Actress Turned First-time Writer/Producer Takes Off Broadway by Storm |
Still On The Fence About This Class?
Try it for one month
and if you don't like it, we'll refund your money!
How about this?
The 12 Step
has a 30 Day
Money Back Guarantee
The 12 Step
has a 30 Day
Money Back Guarantee
All Installment plan prices include Finance Charge plus NYC sales tax
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Working with April, Juan Villa finished his hit solo show, Empanada for a Dream, which snagged
a Chicago Jeff Award nomination for Best Solo Show.
a Chicago Jeff Award nomination for Best Solo Show.
April's strong, quiet, supportive presence was more vital to me exploring my story than I would have thought. The safe environment she creates gave me freedom to be fully honest, with myself in ways that surprised myself. In any interviews I give nationally about my show Empanada for a Dream, I make sure to mention April Yvette Thompson's name because the most complete stories in my award winning play are from her workshops. She has inspired me to help others tell their stories. She taught me that the same commitment I give others, I should give back to myself. I haven't looked back." |
Frequently Asked Questions
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First drafts don't have to be perfect, they just have to be written
How to Start Writing, Breaking the Writers Block Myth, You Do Know How To Write |
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April has transformed my ability to work independently as an artist entrepreneur. Asking myself the hard questions, I am ready to go back to my script. I know what I am looking for so I can self-evaluate. I am ready to hit the ground running." |
How To Make Time To Write
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The biggest structural lesson I have learned since working with April is if there is no action to propel the story forward, it kills your story. Things become static....If you are an actor/writer like I am, you can feel it. The room becomes dead and you have to work harder to engage. When there is action, your story flows and your work becomes easier to perform and share with an audience. People are generally excited about you work." |
Structuring Your Story - The Outline (Inciting Incident) |
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Want a taste of what the 12 step monthly office hours are like?
Check out this video where I respond directly to folks who have sent us their questions.
- Class Outline
- FAQ