Arts & Entertainment, Writing

Introduction

Lesson time 05:00 min

Welcome to Shondaland. Meet Shonda, the woman behind some of television's biggest and most talked about hits, and learn what she'll teach you about the craft of writing for television.

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Topics include: Introduction to the class

Shonda Rhimes

Teaches Writing for Television

In 6+ hours of video lessons, Shonda teaches you her playbook for writing and creating hit television.

Preview

I think the moment that I first really knew I wanted to be a writer was probably almost before I can even remember. I've always been a person who was a storyteller. I don't think I knew I wanted to be a television writer or a screenwriter, but I've always been a storyteller. It's how I was made. I feel like I was born a writer. Me, on the other hand, I'm kinda screwed. We're going to get killed. Did you propose? Weren't you going to ask her tonight? I was doing this tonight-- Liv, we're going to get killed, we're short $3 million. Dr. Grey? Are you listening to me? --blowback you'll get for rushing to judgment on a patriot? The blowback you'll create? Well, yeah. That's my job. I want to be a gladiator in a suit. The discovery that you can make a living writing is like--I don't know it's like your birthday every day or something for me. Because I was a person who, I was writing endlessly in my journal every day. I was also writing stories every day. I was writing every day, no matter what. It was what sustained me. It's my air, it's my food. So then to discover that I could make a living at it felt fantastic, and that I can make a living at it in a way that I enjoyed felt fantastic. I wasn't writing stuff that I hated, I was telling my own stories. And how lucky am I to get to do that? And even when I was writing movies and not necessarily a movie that I was thinking to myself, this is my life's work, I still was telling stories that I felt strongly about. There's a heart in the center of every story you're telling that has to be true, or else I don't know why you're writing. So for me, every story was a story I felt really good about telling. I feel like I'm at a stage in my career where honestly, I'm interested in building the next group of showrunners and the next group of writers and really making it possible for people to have better careers and know more and learn from any mistakes that I have already made, because A, I'm not going to do this forever, but B, what's the point if you're not passing it on to somebody else, frankly? And it's exciting to get to do that. It's also about the fact that at a certain point you start to have perspective and can really look back and see everything from a different angle and sort of start to understand what works and what doesn't. And the minute that starts to happen and it stops being about you, and it starts speaking about what you can give back, that's when you really want to do something like this. I'm fairly sure I have never gone into this much detail about my process. It's really interesting to get to tell all of this stuff. It's kind of the stuff I really wish that everyone knew, because I feel like it's so helpful. It's the stuff I wish someone had told me a long time ago. It probably would have made a bigger difference. I mean. It wou...

About the Instructor

When Shonda Rhimes pitched Grey’s Anatomy she got so nervous she had to start over. Twice. Since then, she has created and produced TV’s biggest hits. In her screenwriting class, Shonda teaches you how to create compelling characters, write a pilot, pitch your idea, and stand out in the writers’ room. You’ll also get original pilot scripts, pitch notes, and series bibles from her shows. Welcome to Shondaland.

Featured MasterClass Instructor

Shonda Rhimes

In 6+ hours of video lessons, Shonda teaches you her playbook for writing and creating hit television.

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