Writing The Perfect Nemesis For Your Story
Something Wicked This Way Comes…
BOOM! The Unstoppable Force (your Hero) meets the Immovable Object (The Nemesis). What happens?
Drama. Edge-of-your-seat, producible, bankable drama.
Any irresistible story requires an authentic, relatable, formidable, memorable opponent. Your hero needs it. The story needs it. We – your audience – crave it.
You’ve seen the courses that explore, explain, and sequence your hero – but your hero is only one crucial element. Without the opposition, your story is like a tug-of-war with only one team. It falls flat. Every time.
Spend the day turning those courses on their heads by getting into the heart of your opposing force, be it a villain or a situation, external or internal. Go on. Kick your stakes up a notch and make your script unputdownable.
Six hour masterclass with exercises, learn at your own pace and rewatch for up to one year.
Oh how audiences LOVE to HATE...
Imagine:
- ‘Game of Thrones’ without Cersei Lannister
- ‘One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest’ without Nurse Ratched
- ‘Alien’ without the Xenomorph
- ‘Killing Eve’ without Villanelle
- ‘The Undoing’ without (SPOILER!)
No, this is NOT another “your villain thinks they are the hero in their own story” class. The Nature of the Nemesis moves beyond a traditional villain, too. Think:
- ‘Breaking Bad’ without Walt’s cancer.
- ‘Finding Nemo’ without Marlin’s fear.
- ‘Cast Away’ without the cruelty of nature.
- ‘Hidden Figures’ without society itself.
Or the culture of the story, characters and systemic failures alike. Consider:
- ‘The Walking Dead’ features Negan, in the world of the zombie apocalypse.
- ‘House Of Cards’ features Francis Underwood in the cutthroat world of politics.
- ‘Chernobyl’ features Dyatlov and the KGB in the world of lies, deceit, and a nuclear meltdown.
- ‘The Trial of the Chicago Seven’ features Richard Schultz amidst the tumult of the 1960’s.
Understand the roles, functions and most effective ways to use foot-soldiers of your nemesis
- ‘The Omen’… ‘Have no fear little one, I am here to protect thee…’
- ‘Harry Potter’… Severus Snape… Or was he?
- ‘Die Hard’… Karl, who hunts down John McCLean.
- ‘Shawshank’ and the giard, Captain Hadley (Clancy Brown’s character).
- ‘Braveheart’ and Robert the Bruce, footsoldier of the English King, who ultimatey turns.
And of course, the most nuanced of opposing forces, where the Hero and Nemesis are one and the same:
- ‘Fleabag,’ where the titular character is a victim of self-sabotage.
- ‘Joker,’ where Fleck’s descent into madness is precipitated by his own actions.
- ‘Psycho,’ where Norman Bates’s split personalities are pitted against each other.
- ‘Mad Men,’ where Don Draper is both brilliant and mundane. An all-too-familiar monster on the run from past mistakes.
Mastering the Mechanics, Structure, Form and Expression of the Nemesis
Uncovering your story’s perfect nemesis isn’t a mystical art. It’s methodical, plannable, and above all – learnable! It’s more craft than art. It requires focus and daring to dive into your own dark heart and to willingly, maybe even gleefully, do some real damage to your own protagonist.
In this two-day workshop…
- Master the TEN ADVERSARIAL ARCHETYPES.
- Identify and fully interrogate the Adversarial Thematic Accelerant that drives every beat, scene, and act of your script.
- Create, develop, and hone the perfect Nemesis for your story.
- Develop the allied negative forces that make the nemesis more powerful and formidable such as negative allies, foot soldiers and generals.
- Use your story universe to elevate your main conflict.
- Inject every scene with greater dynamic tension, driving you through Act 2 to create an irresistible page-turner.
In case all this talk
about dark and
formidable forces
is too much…
Remember…
Cats are super villians…
Trust no-one, suspect everyone…
Evil hides in plain sight…
‘I demand some milk!’
So you struggle in Act 2? There's a reason for that...
Developing this masterclass, we honed in on a key truth: If you’re stumbling in act two, it’s often because you haven’t done the work to develop AND deploy into your story a powerful, dynamic, relatable antagonist. In our stories we need a force (not necessarily a character) that is deeply and thematically interwoven into the very DNA of your lead character. Master your nemesis and you will master Act 2, and conclude your story with a true emotional catharsis.
Whatever genre, medium, or level of development you are at, spend a couple of days perfecting your nemesis, and experience immediate transformation and elevation in your story.
Six hour masterclass with exercises, learn at your own pace and rewatch for up to one year.
Book Of Revelations
You will leave with the stakes hugely ramped up, a more formidable opponent, a clearer universe for the story, defined sub characters (the foot-soldiers of the nemesis if you will), killer water cooler moments for your nemesis… and a satisfying conclusion that will have readers, producers and audiences telling everyone about it. You will have access to our own Book Of Revelations for the nemesis in your story. Yes, suitably dark and grand, as it should be. Our protagonist deserves a worthy, actually, an overwhelmingly more powerful, opponent.
What do Screenwriters Say About Bob?
Andrew Campbell // Screenwriter
‘A really judicious balance of elements, and a masterly distillation of some very complicated but indispensable ideas.’
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Jenny Williams // Screenwriter
‘It really changed how I think about the idea of a nemesis and has brought up some serious issues with my current piece that I need to repair – thank you!! I also liked the interactive element as it got me thinking about other examples of the archetypes and the different ways one archetype could be applied.’
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Kathryn Riley // Storyteller
‘What did I like? Where do I start! The clarity of the purpose of the Nemesis. The 9 archetypes of a nemesis was relayed brilliantly with the short clips of the films and examples. The advise of a ‘Grandstanding speech’ by the nemesis I love the idea of the opportunity for a delicious poetic moment.’
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
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.
