Making the Imaginary Real: How to Turn Ideas into Story

Making the Imaginary Real: How to Turn Ideas into Story is a four-week lecture series with award-winning screenwriter, director, producer, novelist, and playwright Matthew Weiner, creator of Mad Men. The course will take place on Zoom on Thursdays from March 20 until April 10, 2025 from 5:30 to 6:30 p.m. PST. Each session will consist of a 40-45 minute talk followed by 15-20 minute discussion. Given the nature of the series, students will not be able to workshop individual pitches in the sessions, though an online discussion board will be available for attendees to share thoughts with one another throughout the course.

How does one arrive at an idea worth pursuing? What does it look like to refine and develop that idea into a creative work? The creative process is mysterious and, fortunately or not, the individual artist is the final authority. This is a four-week attempt to make that process as exciting and practical as possible with the writer and creator of some of this century’s most critically acclaimed television shows. Join Matthew Weiner as he breaks down the creative process and guides students through how to educate oneself, open one’s imagination, identify ideas, and, finally, turn those ideas into work.

This course is $380. Registration closes on March 19 at 11:59 p.m. PST. For more information, please contact workshops@lareviewofbooks.org.

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Matthew Weiner is an award-winning screenwriter, director, producer, novelist, and playwright, who is best known as the creator of the critically acclaimed series Mad Men. He also worked as writer and executive producer on The Sopranos, contributing to its final two seasons. Weiner created, wrote, and directed The Romanoffs, a contemporary anthology series spanning seven countries, for Amazon and wrote, directed, and produced the feature film Are You Here, starring Owen Wilson, Zach Galifianakis, and Amy Poehler. 

In 2017, he made his literary debut with Heather, the Totality, a novel published by Little, Brown and Company.  His upcoming play, John Wilkes Booth: One Night Only!, directed by Stevie Walker-Webb and starring Ben Ahlers, will have its world premiere at Baltimore Center Stage in May. 

Over the course of his career, Weiner’s contributions to storytelling have garnered nine Emmy wins, six Writers Guild of America Awards, five Producers Guild of America Awards, three Golden Globes, two BAFTAs, a Peabody, and numerous nominations for directing, writing, and producing. Other accolades include being named to the Time 100 list of the “Most Influential People” in the world, one of The Atlantic’s 21 “Brave Thinkers” and the award of Chevalier of Arts and Letters by the French government.