I’m pleased to announce the launch of Mendelsohn Creative Advisory (MCA), a peer-to-peer story and script consultation practice for working and emerging writers. As a WGA screen and television writer since 1993, seven-term officer and Board Member of the Writers Guild of America West, and senior lecturer and professor of screenwriting at Loyola Marymount University, MCA culminates three of my core competencies and greatest passions: writing, teaching, and being of service to writers. If you are interested in scheduling a free consultation, please contact me. You can find my rate card here.
What is a creative advisory service? It is deeply intensive and iterative "story therapy" on scripts, outlines, concepts and pitches, given by a working writer with multiple produced credits. It’s project and career strategizing with a peer-advisor who has worked in every format and genre and lived through every kind of development hell. It’s jumping on a late-night zoom to talk through a scene idea or spending a weekend working through story problems or perfecting a pitch. It’s giving feedback on every draft. It’s helping writers move past creative blockages and tell the best possible version of the story they want to tell.
How is Mendelsohn Creative Advisory different from the creative feedback writers get from agents and writer friends? Similar to traditional therapy, MCA story and script consultation is ongoing, on-call, in-depth and intensive, complementing and enhancing the feedback writers normally get from their support network, which is often high-level and ad hoc (and slow to receive). MCA fills an unmet need in among professional and emerging writers for deep, iterative creative workshopping with an experienced writer-peer, without the long wait.
What are some of the situations in which a writer might benefit from your creative advisory?
TV writers:
• Pitch development
• Pilot and bible development
• Episodic script assignments and “read for notes”
• Sample writing between staff jobs
• "Outside the room" feedback when writing for a show
• Processing and incorporating notes from execs or showrunners
• Time management and project strategizing
• Career coaching
Feature writers:
• Pitch development
• Story and outline development
• Script development (all drafts)
• Idea sourcing and selection
• Processing and incorporating notes from execs or producers
• Time management and project strategizing
• Career coaching
What aspects of writing do you focus on? Advisory sessions offer intensive, writer-to-writer workshopping of all aspects of scriptwriting including:
• Concept work and idea sourcing
• Character development, supporting characters and relationship dynamics
• Story themes and the Central Idea
• Plotting and structural work
• Act and sequence development
• Character arcs and the Critical Test
• Conflict and tension
• Subplots
• Simplifying, cutting or adding pages
• Scene and dialogue work
• Honoring and subverting genre writing
Does MCA work with production companies and development executives? Although my primary client base is writers, I also consult with agencies, management companies, development executives, production companies and brands on a fee basis to optimize storytelling and work through script and story issues, resurrect dead projects, resolve creative differences, and help move clients and projects forward.
Do you offer group sessions? Yes. Group sessions offer the advantage of both a lower individual cost and a collaborative creative environment.
Are you taking referrals? Yes, and if a referral becomes a client, I’m happy to offer the “referrer” a free half hour story session.
What is your fee structure? Everybody's financial situation – and tolerance for taking on additional costs – is different and can change from month to month. To accommodate the range and exigencies of writers' budgets, I offer a flexible "menu" of per-service and per-term fee options. View my rate card