Story Development Workshop
$325 Standard Registration
The Story Development workshop is designed to help writers uncover the stories that matter most to them and explore the most creative and effective ways to bring those stories to life. Participants will examine how a single concept can evolve across multiple storytelling formats including screenplay, pilot script, book, and social media.
Using a writers group format, participants will have the opportunity to share concepts, receive feedback, and begin shaping their ideas into compelling written scenes. Through guided creative exercises and practical writing techniques including the “kitchen timer” method and “mundane tasks” approach, writers will learn how to move past overthinking, unlock creativity, and get ideas from their head onto the page.
Throughout the workshop, participants will develop a 1–3 page scene utilizing the storytelling medium of their choice. The experience will culminate in a collaborative table read where writers will hear their work read aloud in a supportive group setting.
Led by writer, actress, and author Kiersten Lyons, this workshop offers an encouraging and creatively energizing environment for writers at various stages of their storytelling journey.
WHAT YOU WILL WALK AWAY WITH:
• A stronger understanding of story development across multiple mediums
• Creative tools and techniques for overcoming writer’s block and boosting productivity
• Constructive feedback on your story concept and writing
• A completed 1–3 page scene in your chosen storytelling format
• Experience hearing your work read aloud in a table read environment
• 15% off Trilith Institute workshops for 6 months after workshop enrollment
Kiersten Lyons is a writer, actress, and lactose intolerant. Her most notable roles include being attacked by her pet lion on Grey’s Anatomy, being accused of murdering the husband she shared with her sister wives on Bones, and the real-life role of having her wedding called off two months shy of the date. This resulted in the Hollywood Fringe award-winning one-woman show, Crushed, which Dan Fogelman (This is Us, OMITB) said, “I loved everything about this show. I loved it so much, I cast Kiersten in a TV show immediately after seeing it.”
Crushed eventually became the 2025 memoir of the same name, published by Regalo Press + Simon & Schuster. Dan Povenmire (Phineas and Ferb) called Crushed “heartbreaking, sweet, funny and life-affirming.” Her pilot “Business Opportunity” was a Final Draft semifinalist and her writing has been featured in numerous social media campaigns including Disney, Citizen Watches, and Honda.
And, yes, she was the girl who made Taylor Swift cry happy tears…
The Trilith Institute 365 Fund supports all aspects of the 501(c)(3) organization.
$250 pays for a single episode of the Trilith Institute Talks podcast.
$500 feeds cast and crew for one Creative Excellence Fellowship Grant film
$650 provides a one-week scholarship to the Script to Screen Summer Camp
$1000 covers a Dinner With… events where students talk with industry experts over dinner
No amount is too big or small.
