Become an FWR Annual Member and join this class/event (and others) for 10% off! Member promo code must be applied at registration.

This workshop, taught by a WGA Award-nominated writer ("The Morning Show") introduces you to all the basic tools you need to adapt any source material into a TV show. TV development is a slow and grueling process, and understanding how it works, and empowering yourself with the tools to write your own adaptation, can prove invaluable. In this interactive, lecture-style workshop, we'll discuss questions like: Where in the story should your pilot start? What will make this a TV show and not a feature, and which is best for your idea? How do you master TV structure and where does it differentiate from novel structure? Does your character already work for TV, or do you need to externalize them more? How should you balance multiple timelines? Come prepared to learn a LOT and very fast — with a Q&A to end class.

What you will learn:

• Building characters who drive action, and the differences between book and TV characters 

• The structure of a half-hour pilot and an hour-long drama 

• How to create effective story engines (and fully understand what they are) 

• Building unique hooks and conceits to make your pilot stand apart 

• Incorporating theme into your pilot

Workshop takeaways

You will leave with an understanding of how to properly structure a pilot, emphasizing how to create great, memorable characters who drive action and make us want to come back for more. In this course, you will also find the core conflict of your show so your series can last 50 episodes, not just one. You will leave feeling confident in how to take any fictional prose idea (short story, memoir, or novel), and adapt it into a compelling, lasting series.

*Testimonials*

“I loved Ali's workshop because it gave me a roadmap for approaching an idea as a one-hour drama. She broke down building great dramatic characters, then using their psychological needs and the show's themes to shape the overall story. Her in-depth structure analysis was also very helpful to see where specifically the form differs from a sitcom. A great class!” — Chelsea Davison (Ted, The Tonight Show), TV Drama Writing For Comedians workshop

“Ali’s class was amazing! Thanks to this class, I was finally able to complete my outline, which I had been “working on” for several years (i.e., doing anything and everything but actually writing it). Ali had so many amazing insights and experiences that she shared with us in class and, at every step of the way, provided us with constructive feedback on our individual projects. Highly recommended!” — Diana T., ongoing TV writing course

“Ali gave extremely thoughtful notes on every assignment I turned in. She had an incredible ability to point out flaws in my story structure and character work without making me feel bad. Rather, I left each class feeling excited and motivated to keep doing the work. I especially appreciated her lectures, where she used many examples to illustrate her points clearly, and was very open to questions and discussions. I will be taking Ali's next course, and I'm excited to continue working with her!” — Katie M., ongoing TV writing course

ALI VINGIANO is a WGA Award-nominated screenwriter who wrote for the first two seasons of THE MORNING SHOW (Apple TV+). She was previously a Field Producer for THE OPPOSITION W/ JORDAN KLEPPER (Comedy Central) and starred in the largely improvised indie film THE END OF US, which premiered at SXSW. She has written and directed dozens of short films and web series for BuzzFeed, Condé Nast, and independently, which have over 1 billion views online. Her work has been profiled by Huffington Post, NBC’s Today Show, and NYLON Magazine, which said she "is the rare kind of person who can acutely observe human behavior and mine it for storytelling that balances sharp insight with much-needed levity." Her online writing has appeared in Vulture, BuzzFeed, The Hairpin, and on her bestselling Substack newsletter, Little Things.