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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.
  • Each month, you will have a Finish Your Damn Script recorded MasterClass sent to your inbox.
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  • Each MasterClass had an online forum where you can ask questions and we'll respond with answers.
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  • Then each week you will receive and exercise called the weekly weapon emailed directly to you box. 

  • The weekly weapon will take the tools you learned in the MasterClass and put them to work in the real world.
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  • Each month, you will receive an invitation to April's Live Office Hours in the exclusive FB group The BadAss Writer where you can ask her questions in real time and get answers on the spot

  • Each month, you'll receive TheBadAssWriter newsletter with writing grants, opportunities and tips
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
  • 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
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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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What folks are saying about the studying
with April 
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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 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."
- Jillian Walker
​Actor/Writer/Singer

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

Actress Turned First-time Writer/Producer Takes Off Broadway by Storm
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April's client Heather Raffo's documentary theatre play about Iraqi women won the Susan Smith Blackburn prize and ran for an unprecedented 18 months off broadway and continues to tour. 

“April creates an incredible environment to soul search. You’ll find the story most relevant to you today. Not necessarily the story you thought you came to write.” Heather Raffo, Actress/Playwright, Nine Parts of Desire. 

-Heather Raffo
 Actor/Writer/Director

The 12 Step will transform your writing process


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​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

​​All Installment plan prices include Finance Charge plus NYC sales tax
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12 Step FYDS
12 Step FYDS
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Every 1 month (x 1)$284.38 USD
Total $568.76 USD
12 Step FYDS
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At checkout$189.58 USD
Every 3 weeks (x 2)$189.58 USD
Total $568.74 USD
12 Step FYDS
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At checkout$142.19 USD
Every 2 weeks (x 3)$142.19 USD
Total $568.76 USD
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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.
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."
​- Juan Villa, Writer/Actor

Frequently Asked Questions
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When does the course start and finish?
The recorded course never ends! It is a completely self-paced online course - you decide when you start and when you finish.

How long do I have access to the course?
How does lifetime access sound? After enrolling, you have unlimited access to this course for as long as you like - across any and all devices you own.

What if I am unhappy with the course?
We would never want you to be unhappy! If you are unsatisfied with your purchase, contact us in the first 30 days and we will give you a full refund.

First drafts don't have to be perfect, they just have to be written

April continues to inspire and challenge to not talk about but BE about it."

-Sharon Washington
​ Star and Writer of Feeding The Dragon

How to Start Writing, Breaking the Writers Block Myth, You Do Know How To Write
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."
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- Liz Morgan, Actor/Writer
 The Clark Doll, Why I Was Late Today and Will Probably Always Be Late as a Black Woman
How To Make Time To Write
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."
-Nilsa Reyna
 Actor/Writer/Director

Structuring Your Story - The Outline (Inciting Incident)
April's deeply intuitive understanding of the human condition, along with a writer's sense of form and structure, earn her a top notch recommendation. I can't wait until our next meeting for some new exciting insights."
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- David Newer
 Actor, Writer of LA Unified
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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.


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