Teaching

As I don my teacher's cap for a new year, I reflect on how much I like teaching screenwriting. I'll keep at it as long as I feel this way and am able to get to class ha ha. Well, we'll see. I may feel differently next year. But this year, I'm excited to get going again.

What's wonderful about teaching screenwriting is that there are concrete "left brain" things to teach, moreso than in other forms of creative writing. The "it's a matter of taste" stuff is less important in screenwriting: the two most important things, beginning-middle-end storytelling and screenplay format and rhetoric, are specific and clear and therefore can be taught. There is more concrete subject matter in screenwriting than in classes on poetry, fiction, even playwriting. And this makes it easier to teach because "matters of taste" are reduced.

So this week I'll start putting together my new syllabus. We're off and running.