Join NYWIFT for this three-part virtual masterclass with critically-acclaimed writer Pamela Gray to deepen your relationship with your main characters, discover things you don’t know about them, distinguish between what they want vs. what you want, give you insight into secondary characters, and help you move your story forward or take it in a different direction as you and your characters journey together.
Through in-class and weekly writing exercises, film clips, and optional sharing during the sessions, you’ll explore new tools for a script-in-process, future scripts, or unfinished scripts you couldn’t crack. In the spirit of play and exploration, you and your characters can experience the creative freedom that comes from asking “What if….?”
Price: $30 for NYWIFT Members* / $60 for Non-Members
Price includes admission for all 3 sessions.
Each session will be recorded and sent out to all registrants.
*Executive, Platinum, and Leadership Circle members attend for free. Contact membership@nywift.org to join or upgrade your membership.
SESSION ONE: WHAT DO THEY WANT AND HOW DO THEY TRY TO GET IT?
Date: Wednesday, Sept. 23, 2026
Time: 6:30-8pm EST
What does your main character want, how soon do they know what they want, and how do they try to get it? How does that method change through the story? What’s in the way of them getting what they want? And how does the ‘want’ transform throughout the story?
SESSION TWO: SECRETS AND LIES
Date: Wednesday, Sept. 30, 2026
Time: 6:30-8pm EST
What is your main character keeping from you and/or from themselves? Writing exercises will you help you uncover a secret, a lie, a wound, a source of shame or embarrassment, a deep regret, a traumatic memory, a profound disappointment or a combination thereof – giving you an opportunity to reshape or rethink aspects of the storytelling.
SESSION THREE: FEARS, NIGHTMARES, AND WORST-CASE SCENARIOS
Date: Wednesday, October 7, 2026
Time: 6:30-8pm EST
What is your character’s biggest fear? What will happen if they have to face it? What are the consequences of facing it? How does this fear affect the choices they make throughout the story? What is their relationship to that fear by the end of the story?
About the Instructor:
Pamela Gray’s first film A Walk on the Moon received a Golden Satellite nomination for Best Screenplay, a National Board of Review Award, and Variety named her one of “Ten Screenwriters to Watch.” Entertainment Weekly named the film one of the “Fifty Sexiest Films of All time.” Other credits include Music of the Heart, which earned Meryl Streep an Oscar nomination and Angela Bassett an NAACP award, and Conviction, which earned Hilary Swank a SAG nomination and won a Women Film Critics Circle Award for Best Female Images in a Movie, and Megan Leavey, starring Kate Mara. Pamela has written screenplays for Paramount, Warner Brothers, Fox Searchlight, HBO, Disney, CBS Films, and she’s sold female-driven pilots to Netflix, ABC, and CBS.
Pamela is the book writer and additional lyricist for her musical adaptation of A Walk on the Moon which is currently having an Off-Broadway run at the Laura Pels Theatre. The musical had its World Premiere at A.C.T. in San Francisco, and Theatermania named her George Street Playhouse production one of the six Best Regional Shows of 2022, and praised Pamela’s “literate libretto.”
Pamela has been a screenwriting mentor at The Writers Lab for Women Over 40 for the past nine years, and she has an MFA in Screenwriting from UCLA School of Film and Television and an M.A. in Poetry Writing from Boston University.
About the NYWIFT Masterclass Series
The NYWIFT Masterclass Series offers in-depth virtual multi-class workshops that explore various aspects of the film, television, and media industry. Led by award-winning experts, the classes will teach students about the craft, content, and business strategies involved in each creative pursuit, building a solid foundation for artistic fulfillment and commercial success.
(All images courtesy of the participants)
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#nywift | @nywift
NYWIFT programs, screenings and events are supported, in part, by grants from New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council, and New York State Council on the Arts with the support of Governor Kathy Hochul and the New York State Legislature.
