Dear Colleague

I’m delighted to say that from now on, when I can schedule it, I shall be offering a form of teaching that I greatly enjoy, namely, one-to-one mentorships, in which I work closely with one writer on developing and refining their writing skills

Mentorships permit me to provide a very high level of personal interaction and feedback, which is commonly agreed is absolutely the best way to progress writers at their own pace and level. I enjoy all kinds of teaching, but the greatest fascination for me is working intensely with individual writers like this to find their unique strengths and problem areas, then finding, with their assistance, methods to help them in those areas for the rest of their careers. Mentorships permit me to work with the writer to develop their voice and their skills, not just to transmit theory or edit a given script.

I’ve set out answers to commonly-asked questions below.

Contact us for further information and bookings.

How the Mentorship is structured

Participants in the mentorship scheme:

• attend six one-hour weekly one-on-one tutorials with Linda Aronson, in which they work on devising a feature film from scratch
• have their work individually read, annotated discussed and monitored by Linda Aronson
• have priority for script consultancy services from Linda Aronson

FAQ - Linda answers your questions

Is this really one to one teaching?

Yes – even though the fees are comparable to many tertiary diploma courses, where expensive overheads dictate that the norm is a class of ten to twenty people, with teaching restricted to reading aloud of scripts followed by group discussion, and limited or no one-to-one teacher-student contact.

Is there any course preparation?

For some, but not all, mentorships, you will attend a weekend course prior to the tutorials. During the mentorship. You read and work through my book, Linda Aronson, Scriptwriting Updated:New and Conventional Ways of Writing for the Screen (Allen and Unwin, Sydney, 2000)or the US edition Screenwriting Updated:New (and Conventional) Ways of Writing for the Screen (Silman James, Los Angeles, 2001)

Am I too experienced to benefit from the mentorship?

No. I’ve worked with many professional writers, and I find they enjoy my two decades plus of experience and the opportunity to engage with them on a high theoretical and practical level. Mentorship permits me to take experienced writers further faster.

Can I bring along my half completed film to work on?

No. I don’t teach using a half-completed script because the writer is too emotionally committed to the script to be able to learn new screenwriting skills. It can also damage the script, because decisions are being made at a time when the writer is taking on board many new ideas and skills.

I teach by getting each writer to work from scratch on a new project. When the mentorship is over, the writer can go back and make changes on their script in their own time. If you do want me to help you on your own script, however, I do script Consultancies, and depending on my availability, I may be able to be script consultant on your script. Just check out the script consultancy pages on the website.

How much homework is there?

Every week you have to complete a task that takes you from getting a brand new idea for a feature film and taking it as far as we can in its planning (normally to a stage just prior to first draft). You email your work to me, I read it, and then we discuss it next meeting. Normally people spend a few hours a week.

Can I have a mentorship by telephone?

Yes, they work well

Send an email to Linda Aronson