Mastering Misdirection: The Art of Beguiling the Reader and Audience Through Your Writing
Remember how you felt as a kid when you saw a magic trick?
Stories are like that. The best ones are powerful emotional magic tricks.
Audiences willingly suspend their disbelief in order to best experience this illusion.
But when the illusion becomes visible, when you can sense it, or figure it out, the enchantment in the reader or audience quickly turns to something else. Disinterest. Or worse, outright disdain.
The currency we are bargaining with here is time. I give you my time so long as you enchant me with your story. Whether that’s a reader, producer, actor or the final audience. Keep them enchanted and you will find success.
The question for you is this: Does your most recent script enchant? Consistently?
Join us and Master Misdirection in your storytelling.
Where: Online
How Much: £47.99 (Live with playback for one year)
When: October 10th (Saturday) 10am to 4:30pm
Given many narratives are structurally very similar, how on earth do we maintain the illusion for the duration of our story? And in such a way that even to the most educated person, the story feels like some kind of ‘dark art’?
Audiences know and LOVE when they experience story sorcery, and producers love that because it massively increases the chances of the project being a hit.
The answer is of course, a great story well told. Compelling characters. Crackling dialogue. Well honed structure.
It’s underpinned by misdirection, line by line, scene by scene, so the overall experience is profoundly satisfying for the reader and audience.
In a very real sense, as storytellers, we need to control the focus of the audience while our metaphorical other hand is performing the mechanics of the illusion.
Surprise. Mystery. Revelation. Insight. All result in un-put-down-able page turners.
Just to be clear: Yes we all love ‘The Sixth Sense’, but this workshop is not just about a big twist at the end.
And the good news is that this work begins in drafts two or three, once you have your structure and characters in place. It’s refinement and elegance, pace and pauses, supertext and subtext.
As one great writing teacher puts it, ‘if your characters are talking about what’s actually happening, you are fucked’.
‘I learned so much! I genuinely think it will change the way I approach the plot in my scripts. It was extraordinary and just so much fun as well! I enjoyed the whole day so much and ended up with 22 pages of notes! Thank you so much!’
Varsha Shah // Screenwriter
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Spend a day mastering the most important aspect of your script: The words unspoken. The actions untaken. The temptations that generate internal and external conflict. And learn the wordsmith’s proxy for a spectacular magic trick, by mastering misdirection.
Guide the reader and audience so they feel and connect powerfully. Let them think they are sure where you are leading them, then surprise them, but always within the confines of their expectations.
Through examples, seminar and exercises, your writing will deepen, word by word, sentence by sentence and scene by scene, into a sumptuous and compelling experience for the reader, the viewer, and most importantly, the producers who will find it much easier to get greenlit.
During this workshop you will work directly on your own writing so have a recent draft or some pages ready and at hand.
If you’ve ever been told your script is too “on the nose,” this course is for you.
Master the magic ‘illusion’ and enchant the audience. That’s GREAT storytelling.
Alison Clapham // Screenwriter
‘The workshop has a great balance of theory, practical exercises, and film and TV examples. I have picked up practical methods for polishing and improving my scripts, to add layers of enjoyment for the reader and viewer.’
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Tania Tay // Screenwriter
‘Bob is brilliant and so enthusiastic about showing us how the masters keep us watching. I don’t want my stories to be too on the nose, but it’s not always easy to work out how to make them better. Bob’s given us a toolbox of techniques we can apply to our own stories to increase depth and tension. Plus it’s always just great to be surrounded by the other LSF writers!’
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Julie Sandwell // Screenwriter
‘The workshop provided real and useable techniques for creating suspense and increasing tension in a way that pays off for the audience. It’s especially useful rewrites, looking more deeply at structure and character. I didn’t think the protagonist in my script needed a secret. Now I know that she does!’
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Read all the feedback HERE
This class is run by screenwriter Bob Schultz. For more than 20 years, Bob has been training screenwriters , helping thousands of writers clarify their stories, reorganise their ideas and build confidence to bring the very best version of any writer, to the opportunities they create.
‘For me, it was an excellent introduction to misdirection. I KNOW misdirection must work in the stories I write but I’ve never SEEN and HEARD the techniques described clearly and exemplified. I can’t wait to re-watch the class and take serious notes, find more examples to guide me, and work some magic myself. I loved everything about it.’
Judy Potocki // Writer
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‘I thought the practical way in which the information was delivered, which made it easy to understand and assimilate was brilliant. Also, the examples used and the tools provided, which I found very inspiring. I loved the writing exercises and how they helped me rethink some scenes in my current project.’
Denisa Popa // Writer, Producer
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I loved everything about this workshop: the clear and enthusiastic way Bob presented the subject, the excellent film clips, the valuable writing exercises. Best of all for me, it made me realise what’s lacking in my novel: a meaty secret for the protagonist. So I’m reworking it and beginning to feel I’ve finally cracked it. So huge, grateful thanks to Bob.’
Sally Sheringham // Novelist
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‘This gave me a better understanding of how to use misdirection in the context of set-up and pay-off. I loved the concept of “re-contextualisation” in particular. It was a very clear presentation and Bob is a wonderfully engaging, enthusiastic instructor. Always a learning pleasure!’
Vera Mark // Writer / filmmaker
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‘The course was a good balance between ideas and film-clip examples, and I hugely enjoyed Bob’s breadth of knowledge and enthusiasm. Life-enhancing!’
Christine Green // Literary Agent
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‘The course helped me figure out what it is that is driving my central character throughout – her hidden agenda that motivates her every action, that she cannot bear other people to know. Through a series of writing and reflection exercises we were able to really think about our characters in terms of how they portray themselves to the audience, which was really helpful. The course was very well structured and well paced, good to do a bit of writing too.’
Alex Davies // Writer
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‘Hugely insightful peek under the bonnet of storytelling. Across film, novels, theatre, the mechanics are quite universal, and have been more or less since the ancient Greeks. And yet, they bear repeating, and there are always new tricks to be learned. All in all, a handsomely rewarding one day crash-course for writers on all levels.’
Tom Kenis // Fiction writer
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‘I haven’t come across these ideas anywhere – neither during my studies, nor in any screenwriting books.’
Teodora Gaydarova // Screenwriter
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‘Bob Schultz is an excellent teacher: clear, interesting and interested. I both enjoyed the class and felt like I learnt a lot. It had a good variety of tasks and focuses and I really enjoyed the writing exercises. There was also great use of film clips. Overall, really interesting.’
Laura Morgan // Writer
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‘I learned so much! I genuinely think it will change the way I approach the plot in my scripts. It was extraordinary and just so much fun as well! I enjoyed the whole day so much and ended up with 22 pages of notes! Thank you so much!’
Varsha Shah // Screenwriter
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‘The workshop has a great balance of theory, practical exercises, and film and TV examples. I have picked up practical methods for polishing and improving my scripts, to add layers of enjoyment for the reader and viewer.’
Alison Clapham // Screenwriter
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‘Bob is brilliant and so enthusiastic about showing us how the masters keep us watching. I don’t want my stories to be too on the nose, but it’s not always easy to work out how to make them better. Bob’s given us a toolbox of techniques we can apply to our own stories to increase depth and tension. Plus it’s always just great to be surrounded by the other LSF writers!’
Tania Tay // Screenwriter
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‘The examples were awesome, the pacing was fantastic and it just felt like a really relaxed vibe to it as well – Bob was amazing, he was always open to questions at any point, provided wonderful insight and I learnt so much from it. Really enjoyed it and for just £47.99, it was really worth it. I can’t recommend it enough.’
George Watson // Filmmaker
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‘The workshop provided real and useable techniques for creating suspense and increasing tension in a way that pays off for the audience. It’s especially useful rewrites, looking more deeply at structure and character. I didn’t think the protagonist in my script needed a secret. Now I know that she does!’
Julie Sandwell // Screenwriter
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‘It was really precise, usable immediately and ripped along with good examples well edited to illustrate the points.’
Mai Davies // Screenwriter
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‘Focusing on misdirection brings a whole new energy to the script. It shakes up your ideas and adds SO many layers to your characters. And it helped me to start having fun with my script, taking risks and finding completely new angles. Everyone needs Bob in their life. You cannot help but come away from one of his workshops with your project in better shape.’
Abbie Heath // Screenwriter
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