We are so happy to share this recording of our live event, Dating Your Character. Your fellow writers came up with wonderful things in the text chat, which you’ll hear us read throughout the evening.

Prefer to watch? Head to manuscriptacademy.com/dating-your-character

Writing doesn’t have to strictly be a serious, intellectual exercise. You can reap rewards by approaching your work in an experimental frame of mind. Our way of developing an intimacy with your character is through the awkward and always-interesting lens of dating.

Introducing Dating Your Character, with producer/literary manager Marilyn R. Atlas and VP of Literary Development Elizabeth Lopez.

Having sold several first-time writers’ books, Marilyn and Elizabeth believe that screenwriting and prose writing seek to satisfy the same visceral and emotional needs. While they inevitably look at manuscripts with an eye to adaptation, this class is an informal way to bridge both worlds.

Using examples from film and TV, they look at character development as the key to binding all the composite parts — the theme, dilemmas and scenarios leading to all-important transformations. By riffing on the choices that the screenwriter could have been confronted with, they focus on possibility, not inevitability. To reinforce that, they’ll offer exercises to reveal the choices open to you in your work.

Expect fun, support, laughter, community–and actionable tips to bring your characters to life.

Marilyn R. Atlas is a talent and literary manager and award-winning producer. 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). She also co-produced the award-winning play “To Gillian on Her 37th Birthday.”

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.

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)

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