Due to the current COVID-19 situation, we're offering special ESWA online sessions via Zoom, free to all ESWA members. We're excited to announce our next session features The Big Bang Theory Executive Producer, and Young Sheldon Supervising Producer, Eric Kaplan!
Please note: an email with Zoom log in information and password will be sent out to all registrants 24 hours prior to the event. You do NOT need to download Zoom to participate. You do however, have to register for this ESWA event in order to receive the Zoom log in information and password.
This session is open ONLY to members of ESWA. Not a member? Click here to join! For only $35.00 a year, you'll receive a discount on the annual Bay to Ocean Writers Conference, voted the best one-day writing conference on the East Coast by Writer Magazine. You'll also be invited to take part in special instructional writing workshops by some of the top writers in our area and to take part in our Open Mic Nights!
About the Session:
Character and Plot with Eric Kaplan
How do we create a character?
What is the relationship between character and plot?
Sometimes we will see a story and say "that's too plotty! There was a crime, they solved it, the bad guys captured the good guys, the good guys escaped, they solved the crime and I didn't care." Why does this happen? Because we don't actually get to know the characters. They are just ciphers moving through the ups and downs of the plot like crash-test dummies strapped into a rollercoaster.
So we dont' want that. And yet, everybody knows CHARACTER IS REVEALED BY ACTION! We should show our audience who our characters are by showing what they do and the choices they make.
But...how can both be true? How can it both be the case that we get to know characters through plot and ALSO the case that we can have a complicated plot full of crimes and solutions captures and escapes and not know the characters at all.
In this meeting we will do some exercises and talk about CHARACTER and PLOT!
ERIC KAPLAN
A native of Flatbush, New York, Eric Kaplan began writing for Spy magazine and the Harvard Lampoon before getting his first television-writing job on The Late Show with David Letterman. Before THE BIG BANG THEORY, he worked on other shows including Futurama (for which he won an Emmy), Flight of the Conchords, Malcolm in the Middle, and Andy Richter Controls the Universe. Kaplan created "Zombie College" for icebox and co-created "The Drinky Crow Show" and "Mongo Wrestling Alliance" for Adult Swim through his company Mirari Films. Kaplan has his PhD from UC Berkeley in philosophy on the comic in the philosophy of Soren Kierkegaard. His book Does Santa Exist: A Philosophical Investigation was published by Dutton in 2014 and has been called by Matt Groening "the funniest philosophy book since...well, ever." Eric is also a supervising producer on Young Sheldon, and currently resides in Los Angeles with his wife and two children.
Eric is currently teaching sessions for the non-profit organization, Afterschool Village. About Afterschool Village: An afterschool program focused on sustainability where educators and psychologists partner with parents to raise healthy children. Click here to learn more!
Visit the current calendar to plug your children into fun & currently free learning opportunities during the COVID crisis!
