When I launched my electronic screenwriting tutorial in 1997, I knew I was breaking new ground. So I had no idea how it might be received. To my delight, reviewers and users universally loved it (see reviews and testimonials). It also sold well. All was great for about the first five years of its existence. Then a new version of Windows made my installation file in need of upgrading but I had no energy or interest to do so, having gone on to other projects. I made a CD version but this never sold well. After a time, the "remarkable" "ground-breaking" tutorial was forgotten.
Lately I had a chance to revisit it. I was impressed. In fact, I was astounded. It remains the best screenwriting education product on the market, in my biased view. This is largely because of two things: its hypertext structure, letting the reader define his own learning path; and because I am not pushing a theory but, like any good professor, showing many theories and emphasizing what they share, such as Aristotle's notion of beginning-middle-end storytelling. I am not pushing a single view of screenwriting. I am looking at the common strengths of all views.
I decided it was time to get this product before a new generation of students. How? My first thought was as an app but its size -- over 400 files, over 1000 pages printed! -- worked against it. A hypertext Kindle book! This would be unique. I put an ad on Craigs List, and a Russian guy made a dummy that was wonderful. However, the cost for the whole book was more than I wanted to pay. I might be dead before I sold enough copies to break even. How about putting it online as a private website, accessed only with an app? Complicated, also spendy.
Then the light went off. I already had made good money on this. I'm an old man. I'm a retiring screenwriting professor, with only a few more years of teaching left in me. Maybe it was time to spread some good karma to the universe and give a gift to a new generation of screenwriting students.
I decided to put the course online with free access. And that's where the story ends.
This is my gift, my parting shot, to a new generation of students.
Charles Deemer
June 1, 2013