Professional Membership imparts unique Checkpoints, a set of professional writing and collaboration tools covering comprehensive fundamentals of screenwriting for features, television and digital production.
Our goal is to provide you with a repeatable Full Development process that confirms your own creative authority, including an evaluation method on all Four Levels of Development (Concept, Structure, Character Development & Scene Work), as well as Empowered Rewriting.
* These benefits are free and ongoing as part of membership.
The tangible benefits of Pro Membership include 21 months of support. The first 12 weeks are called Basic Training and provide weekly support to learn a set of unique tools and creative exercises while writing a first draft in seven weeks and then two rewrites. In LA, the remaining 18 months are supported directly by Writers Boot Camp founder Jeffrey Gordon in a Project Group with other writers; via One-on-One, outside of LA, writers continue after Basic Training with a mentor individually, with access to teleconferences, blog posts and an audio-video archive.
As you start the 18 months, your mentor will help align your goals based on whether you’re writing a new project or affirming the one from Basic Training, whether you are solid about your concept or reworking it—and depending on writing for television, movies, prose or shorter form or digital. You will have access to Office Hours with a staff member once per week to review Writers Boot Camp materials and key single-sentence and single-page exercises that naturally develop your story and build your script. Rather than impose formula, the tools support your authority as each exercise provides a method of evaluation for improvement.
For perspective, the total of 21 months—which will go by very quickly—provides a platform for the development of three or four projects through numerous stages of rewriting. After the first draft of your initial script, every six months potentially represents a “full development” timeline, a Project Cycle. The actual number of scripts may shift based on their format and due to your own decisions whether to set aside certain drafts to start new projects for further learning and creative exploration.
In effect, you will receive varied forms of support on dozens of drafts of various scripts and projects. Materials include 150 terms, tools, exercises, brainstorming and evaluation techniques. The process includes script evaluation twice annually during and afterwards as an alumnus. Additional benefits include free Mini-Camps at least eight times per year and access to prior recorded material as it becomes available through our Pro Member web page. Just recently, as one of our 30th anniversary initiatives, we’ve added a group of industry insiders as a Career Advisory Panel to further support Pro Member alumni.
Outside of LA, we refer to Professional Membership as OPM, which stands for One-on-One Pro Membership. The main difference of support outside of LA is the continuation of individual work with your mentor after Basic Training instead of working within a group. Currently, OPM writers do not interact with a group of writers and remain on their mentor’s roster for support.
The intangible benefits include the potential business opportunities that your commitment to productivity may bring. The longer-term regimen, the supportive, collaborative environment–while not pushing a specific creative agenda or bias—and additional time-management approaches will naturally create confidence and efficiency through your enhanced writing and proven illustration of your talent.
One intangible as an alumnus is a business hot line through the LA office for insight and perspective about the business at key junctures in one’s career. And you may discover mutually supportive relationships with future filmmakers and show runners, who share distinctions, tools and a common language of creativity.
An individual artist may excel at a faster pace based on their prior professional experience and parallel process. The benefits of expedited progress and accelerated stages of work, thematic and character-driven layers in one’s work will enhance your awareness, which can lead to a stronger artistic reputation—and many Writers Boot Camp alumni work in other aspects of the business at the highest levels as filmmakers, producers and executive.
The primary emphasis of Pro Membership is on the cultivation of an arsenal of writing samples through an empowered, differentiated rewriting process, including dozens of specific rewriting exercises that preempt many of the conventional writing and rewriting problems. The materials and support help you avoid premature editing, promote more active and deeper idea testing, learn principles of Structure, the layers of Character Development, 50 ways to enhance Scene Work and to cultivate a shorthand for prescribing steps to other writers.
Next: Full Development Philosophy
“ Writers Boot Camp gave me support in the crucial beginning stages of my first movie which landed me an overall studio deal. “
“ My Writers Boot Camp script got me an agent, five TV movies and a feature deal in two years. “
“ With a hit Off Broadway play under my belt, I still knew nothing of screenwriting technique before enrolling in Writers Boot Camp. In fact, it was my first writing course of any kind (Think Tank--which is now Pro Membership--was the second). “
“ As someone with a fair amount of experience in creative writing groups and classes, Writers Boot Camp was a wake-up call for me. The emphasis on the tools provided and the clear, forthright explanations of how to apply those tools to your writing in a step-by-step process was both invaluable and far superior to other programs. “
“ After 19 years as a Broadway actor and creative director/fashion editor, I was ready to tell my own stories and WBC gave me the tools to organize all my wild ideas. I also needed a space that was wildly inclusive and supportive of diversity and capable of giving constructive feedback no matter the subject matter. Thanks, Jeff! “
“ "My last day of Project Group, I turned to a close friend whom I met when we first started. "Can you believe it's been nearly two years?" I said. "Two? It feels more like 10." This feeling was testament to the enormous amount of ground covered in Professional Membership. Not only did I learn the fundamentals of telling a story - a skill that applies to all forms of writing and analysis - I learned how to look at myself through my work and to better understand what I was trying to say." “
“ "There are so many incredible aspects to Pro Membership, as well as Basic Training. The tools are truly idiot-proof, however, they aren't without sophistication. They lead you to translate the ideas floating around your head into life on a page--a structure, then scenes, and ultimately a working story. Writers Boot Camp is the kind of learning environment that one could return to at any point in their career, whether you have won an Academy Award or are a beginner." “
“ “It was a great jump-start for me. I had stalled a little bit - was having trouble coming up with ideas, etc. Writers Boot Camp got me into a writing routine and gave me tools to get unstuck. Also, I was able to finish a script on deadline - even though it needed a lot of work, I started to feel like I had enough drive to keep at it… “ “
“ "My Writers Boot Camp experience was essentially a series of escalating breakthroughs and deepening insights, pushing me toward mastery of the art and business of screenwriting…But my most potent writing breakthrough struck when I realized that the most potent writing breakthroughs are not, strictly speaking, 'writing' breakthroughs at all. They're conceptual breakthroughs. Writing well is necessary, but not sufficient. I'm certain that I wouldn't understand any of this nearly as well without the luxury of developing my craft in the sheltered harbor of Writers Boot Camp, where being an unknown writer (for now) is the best thing that ever happened ... “
Writers Boot Camp alumni have received Oscars, Emmys, Golden Globes, WGA and Tony awards. Here are just some of the credits of our alumni: