Develop a new idea, or figure out why that old one isn’t quite working. Our workshop-style classes, practical lessons, and one-to-one consultations will help you get your feature or television script ready for agents and studios.
The Italy writing retreat is designed to move each project forward, offering each participant analysis and discussion with our leader and collaboration with fellow writers. We focus on exchanging ideas and pages so that you feel inspired and productive. We offer practical exercises to hone your writing skills and teach you a few tricks of the screen trade. Our skills-based mini-lessons will tackle specifics such as subtext, stakes, beginnings, creating characters that pop, “getting in late and getting out early” from a scene, defining relationships, being precise and concise, and much more.
For new material, we will guide you through assembling a script, from pitch to outline to completed scenes. If you’d like to perfect an existing project, we will break it down and put it back together again, giving you insight into what works and what doesn’t, so that you can leave with a strong, streamlined screenplay that you’ll feel confident handing over to any agent or studio in town.
Also, you’ll be away from your daily grind working against a backdrop of beautiful landscapes, delicious cuisine and inspiring culture – ITALY! You’ll have the option of writing breaks ranging from town walks, to cathedral and underground city tours, wine tastings, and other exploration.
The registration fee covers coaching and mentoring, 13 nights lodging at Agriturismo Montalbino, 13 continental breakfasts, and 10 lunches and dinners, plus welcome dinner on the first night. We will pick up and drop off participants at the local train station, if required.
Heidi Hornbacher is a writer, director, and instructor who writes stories of misfits struggling to find their place and themselves. Her rescue horse film, Arrow, won best short doc at the Malibu Film Fest 2021. Her short, Washed Away, about a struggling artist’s encounter with Picasso is streaming on Amazon Prime. Her animated family feature, Gristle, made the Grey List for 2023 and 2024, won 2023 Industrial Scripts Titan Awards, is a top 10 Finalist for 2025 Cinequest, and is in the top 1% on Coverfly.
A UCLA Screenwriting alum, she cofounded the Slamdance Script Clinic as well as PageCraft Writing and loves working with other writers to elevate their craft. She’s a frequent lecturer on craft at Slamdance, Roadmap Writers, Alameda International Film Festival, Coherence Education, and Eastern New Mexico University. As a kid she hid in her room to write stories about animals. This had the dual benefit of playing in imagination and avoiding chores.
She is repped by Zero Gravity.
Our readers judge for major screenwriting competitions, including Slamdance, Page International, and NYWIFT/IRIS Writer’s Lab. We will read your script, and offer a choice of a detailed written report diagnosing problems and suggesting improvements, or a one-hour telephone/Skype consultation, or both.
We design our feedback not only to give you a thorough understanding of what works, what doesn’t, and what could work better, but also to provide you with a roadmap for moving forward. If you choose the written feedback, you’ll get at least four pages covering presentation and formatting, story structure, plot, character, dialogue, tone, style, and commercial potential. We generate a logline and short synopsis so that you can see how your story comes across. Finally, we make clear recommendations so that you can use the feedback to your best advantage. Our commitment to you is that working with us will help you take your writing to the next level, whatever that is for your career.
(If you have posted a Writing Gig, please click the red GIG REQUESTS button to view your submissions. If you are a writer and want to be considered for the TOP 25, you must be an ISAConnect Member)