TSA is Returning to Its Roots!

For over 30 years, the Tennessee Screenwriting Association met live and in-person every Wednesday evening to develop a nurturing community of screenwriters and storytellers from across Tennessee. After the meetings, writers would go “off campus” to enjoy dinner or drinks, which is where true relationships were built and deeper discussion about material and screenwriting happened. The in-person meetings also had objectively better story-building sessions since attendees who were in the room were forced to pay closer attention to material being presented and to our lecturers. Now, it is all too easy to turn off one's camera and do other tasks while not giving a writer or lecturer undivided attention. This does not serve our members well.

TSA's long-standing practice of live meetings was disrupted by the COVID pandemic along with the countless other businesses, organizations, and institutions that had to grapple with the challenges of the lockdown. Beginning in 2024, TSA began hybrid meetings which combined real-world and virtual attendance, but the hybrid meetings continue to present challenges related to technology, interpersonal dynamics, good communication, and as I mentioned earlier, the actual quality of feedback for members.

The pandemic lockdowns are long gone now. So are the winter's subzero temperatures, spring's torrential downpours, and all the other excuses we've heard for not attending a real-world gathering at a location which is centrally located. Now that online classes of Script School have wrapped, TSA will only be meeting live, in-person on Wednesdays at Nashville Film Institute until further notice.

For those of you who live outside of Middle Tennessee, this is not the end of online TSA events. We will have multiple seminars throughout the summer and fall that will be held via Zoom which everyone can participate in, including virtual events for this year's Script-Com conference. And you can continue to interact with your fellow TSA Members through the TSA Facebook page and group (now might be a good time to start following us on both of those if you aren't already), as well as through our website as we expand our forums beyond the Homework Hotline.

But on a week-to-week basis, beginning July 16, TSA's Wednesday Workshops will be in-person events only.

Thank you for your understanding and I hope you will join us!