Pacing can make or break a story. Think it’s difficult in 300 pages? Try it in two hours!
Join book-to-fim producers Marilyn R. Atlas and Elizabeth Lopez as they walk us through real world examples of how to pull these levers (character, pacing, stakes, setting) to strengthen your story.
Learn to keep your reader’s attention, elevate your storytelling, take the temperature of your pivotal scenes, and increase your emotional impact.
Plus, learn your best next steps if you’d love to see your book in theaters!
Elizabeth Lopez attended Vassar College, majoring in English Literature. She was a screenwriting fellow of the L.A. Latino Film Festival and has had several articles published online and in print for entertainment-oriented magazines such as “Storylink,” “The Script Lab,” and “Gideon’s Screenwriting Tips.” She has taught screenwriting classes at the Ojai Writers Festival, The Writers Store, and for the WGA TV Writers’ Fund. She and her partner Marilyn R. Atlas, along with producer Devorah Cutler-Rubenstein, co-wrote the character-based guide/workbook “Dating Your Character,” which embraces a more playful approach that focuses on tying plot to inherent and evolved character behavior. Dating Your Character: A Sexy Guide to Screenwriting (mymustreads.com)
Marilyn R. Atlas is a talent & literary manager, award-winning producer, and co-author of Dating Your Character. Her clients have appeared in shows such as Star Trek, Fringe, Pretty Little Liars, How to Get Away with Murder, 90210, Revenge, Hart of Dixie, NCIS:LA, True Blood, Dexter, Chuck, Castle, and Criminal Minds. She was film producer on Real Women Have Curves for HBO, which won the Audience Award at the Sundance Film Festival; A Certain Desire, starring Sam Waterston; and Echoes, which won the Gold Award at the Texas International Film Festival.
In addition to producing a variety of programming for the cable/ pay TV market. In live theater, Marilyn co-produced the West Coast premiere of the musical God Bless You Mr. Rosewater by Ashman and Menken (the writers of Enchanted and Tangled). Real Women Have Curves – The Musical is opening on Broadway April 2025. She also co-produced the award-winning play “To Gillian on Her 37th Birthday,” co-produced a play in San Antonio called “Detained in the Desert,” and produced a movie for Lifetime based on a book called “The Choking Game.”
Marilyn herself has been in development on pilots for Showtime and ABC Family. In addition to Marilyn’s film/TV credits, she has sold (first time) novels Chasing the Jaguar to HarperCollins to Hachette Book Ave Maria Bed & Breakfast to Grand Central Publishing, and the Hungry Woman in Paris, Group, and the Last Ride of Caleb O’Toole to Sourcebooks Her Lifetime movie The Choking Game based on the YA book by Diana Lopez aired in summer 2014. She is also featured in the book Write Now! from Penguin/Tarcher. She is the co-author of a relationship-based, screenwriting guide called Dating Your Character, about an organic approach to character creation for Stairway Press’s Summer 2016 catalog
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About the Instructor
Marilyn Atlas
Marilyn R. Atlas is a talent & literary manager, award-winning producer, and co-author of Dating Your Character. Her clients have appeared in shows such as Star Trek, Fringe, Pretty Little Liars, How to Get Away with Murder, 90210, Revenge, Hart of Dixie, NCIS:LA, True Blood, Dexter, Chuck, Castle, and Criminal Minds. She was film producer on Real Women Have Curves for HBO, which won the Audience Award at the Sundance Film Festival; A Certain Desire, starring Sam Waterston; and Echoes, which won the Gold Award at the Texas International Film Festival.
In addition to producing a variety of programming for the cable/ pay TV market. In live theater, Marilyn co-produced the West Coast premiere of the musical God Bless You Mr. Rosewater by Ashman and Menken (the writers of Enchanted and Tangled). Real Women Have Curves – The Musical is opening on Broadway April 2025. She also co-produced the award-winning play “To Gillian on Her 37th Birthday,” co-produced a play in San Antonio called “Detained in the Desert,” and produced a movie for Lifetime based on a book called “The Choking Game.”
Marilyn herself has been in development on pilots for Showtime and ABC Family. In addition to Marilyn’s film/TV credits, she has sold (first time) novels Chasing the Jaguar to HarperCollinsto Hachette Book Ave Maria Bed & Breakfast to Grand Central Publishing, and the Hungry Woman in Paris, Group, and the Last Ride of Caleb O’Toole to Sourcebooks Her Lifetime movie The Choking Game based on the YA book by Diana Lopez aired in summer 2014. She is also featured in the book Write Now! from Penguin/Tarcher. She is the co-author of a relationship-based, screenwriting guide called Dating Your Character, about an organic approach to character creation for Stairway Press’s Summer 2016 catalog.