Glad you've read Brody's book. He's a good friend of mine. In fact we were writing partners for awhile and had a great working relationship. If you're going to listen to anybody about writing, it's Brody. And he has quite a few stories to tell as well.

Every year he holds Brodystock and I think he's doing Vegas this year.

As for "to each his own," you're right. But there's a point that we have to ask ourselves, how many books are we going to buy, how many seminars are we going to attend, how much money are we going to spend before it becomes counterproductive?

Most new writers are looking for the magic forumula. And there simply ISN'T one. To paraphrase Bush, "It's haaaard work." And going to seminars may be inspiring, but they're never a substitute for putting your butt in the chair and doing it -- even when it feels like you don't know what the hell you're doing.

Rob, judging from the amateur scripts I've read from my peers (as an amateur myself) I think a lot of people would benefit from even the most basic of seminars or intro-level books. Seminars, intro level books, are supposed to point you in the right direction. The rest is up to the student.

The 'guru' metaphor is probably already killed at this point.

I wholeheartedly agree on your last point. Writers must write in order to get better. "Read another book" is a classic joke from university when you're supposed to be getting a paper done.

Well the whole point of going to a seminar/workship is to put your butt in the chair and do it.

It's also an excellent way to sharpen the knife.

Book learning is great, experiencing is great, doing is great, but teachers exist for a reason. No book without a teacher, no practice without a preacher and so on. It's all part of a comprehensive learning process, which hopefully continues until we're pushing up daisies.

I don't mean to be contrary, but I think it's also a good way to dull the knife. Enough information is helpful but too much can leave a lot of new writers overwhelmed. The only thing that REALLY sharpens the knife is actually doing the writing and solving problems.

I know I keep pushing this point, but I think it's an important one.

Point taken.

Looks like we'll have to agree to disagree.

beyond structure secrets
 

Can anyone please reveal these secrets?

Character Deepening Technique
 

Can you list at least ten of these?

i signed up for his lecture years ago. i went in, and then at the first break i asked for my money back and left. maybe some people would find it helpful, but i didn't at all. a lot of these gurus can ANALYZE a screenplay, but that's a completely different process than WRITING a screenplay.

i did take a weekend workshop with blake snyder who wrote Save The Cat. it was excellent and i highly recommend it.