Microdrama Writing Cohort
A free workshop on 24 September, then three sessions with Celia Xavier spent entirely on the writing. You come out with a 30-episode outline and your first two episodes, written and rewritten in the room.
Co-developed with CLOWD Film Festival, and timed so you finish as their competition opens.
Free workshop 24 September, 4pm PT. Cohort runs from the week of 28 September.
Vertical screenwriter and producer · Los Angeles
Celia writes high-concept genre verticals — revenge, romantasy, paranormal, suspense — built around women who are dangerous and emotionally guarded. Lean dialogue, a hook and a cliffhanger in every episode.
Her series In Love With My Daughter's Fake Baby Daddy won a Top 6 Visionary Award on ReelShort, took 200,000+ views and a two-year distribution contract. She is a Roy W. Dean Grant finalist, a Writers Bootcamp fellow, and reached the second round of the MACRO × The Black List × Warner Bros. feature incubator, which accepts under one percent.
Twenty years producing independent film came first — twelve produced projects, head of distribution at Tribal TV, and founder of the Tribal Film Festival — before she moved into vertical drama. She is one of the first ten AI creators on Leyline, and built her own pre-write agent for vertical microdrama: hook generation, cliffhanger mapping, and a three-pass human-AI filter loop. This course is that methodology.
The free session is Celia walking through how a vertical actually earns its audience: the three jobs an episode does — the hook that earns the install, the free run that builds the habit, and the episode ten cliffhanger that gets someone to pay — and why a hook gets three seconds rather than thirty.
That much she gives away. The rest of it — the four beats, the rage-bait and recovery rhythm, and the 30-episode outline discipline that holds a series together — is what the three paid sessions are for.
$199. Three sessions over a week and a half, from the week of 28 September. Celia's course, “Writing Micro Dramas for AI Production”.
Homework: A full 30-episode outline. You should know the ending before you write episode 1.
Homework: Write episode two.
Come to session one with a story idea and a draft logline. That is the only prerequisite.
The whole series, ending first
Written, read aloud, rewritten
Characters, world, tone
Carry on to the full script
For projects that warrant it, production financing to complete a series is available. It is offered selectively and case by case, assessed on the state of the script, how ready you are to produce, and whether the series stands up commercially. Reaching the final of a competition does not entitle anyone to it.
In practice, the people who get there arrive with a finished script — roughly 50 to 60 pages — and intend to direct the show themselves. That is what readiness looks like, and it is why the option to carry on past two episodes exists.
You keep ownership of your show throughout. None of this carries exclusivity, and none of it is a condition of taking the cohort.
Three sessions over a week and a half from 28 September means you finish right as the festival opens on 7–8 October. You spend the submission window producing something you have already developed properly, rather than starting from nothing on the day entries go live.
$199 for three sessions. The workshop on 24 September is free and open to everyone.
Free workshop 24 September, 4pm PT. Cohort runs from the week of 28 September.