David Cornue Returns to SXSW 2027 to Lead Two Story Development Workshops

The best-selling author of Stop Writing! brings a story development method taught for more than a decade to the Lifestyle and Film & TV tracks in Austin, March 15 to 21, 2027.

LOS ANGELES, Oct. 29, 2026 /PRNewswire/ -- Best-selling author and television writer-producer David Cornue returns to SXSW, where his pilot presentation Unspeakable premiered, to lead two story development workshops at SXSW 2027 in Austin: one in the Lifestyle track and one in the Film & TV track. The festival runs March 15 to 21, 2027, and Cornue's participation is listed on the official SXSW 2027 schedule.

The first workshop, titled "Stop Writing! Master Story Before You Write a Word," draws from Cornue's book Stop Writing!, published in 2026 by Every Story Press. The second workshop, "Story First, Words Last: A Development Workshop for Writers," was organized by Milena Govich, co-founder of Every Story, with Cornue as speaker.

Cornue has taught the method for more than a decade. It asks writers to build the concept, world, and characters of a project before drafting begins, then complete an outline, and only then start writing. The book applies the sequence to screenplays, novels, plays, and series, and includes a test that has writers describe a story in seven sentences rather than seventy pages.

The method grew out of Cornue's work in professional development rooms. He created, wrote, and executive produced the ABC and 20th Television drama TRIAGE with director Jon M. Chu and EP Erica Messer, executive produced the ESPN+ series COACH with Bill Belichick, and is currently developing a series with NBC and adapting Stephen King's Insomnia with Rideback. He also wrote, produced, and scored Unspeakable, which premiered at SXSW and was nominated for Best Independent Episodic. Before writing for the screen, he trained as a classical composer, a background he credits with shaping how he approaches story structure.

"You don't sit down one day and write a symphony from start to finish. You map it out first. A story is no different. After a decade of coaching professional writers, I see one issue more than any other: writing too soon," said David Cornue, author of Stop Writing!

Both sessions are hands-on workshops. The Lifestyle workshop explores how to get into the optimal creative mindset. The Film & TV workshop takes participants through a development process, moving a concept from first idea toward a developed story..

About David Cornue and Every Story
David Cornue is a writing coach, author, screenwriter, and composer whose credits include TRIAGE, COACH, and Unspeakable. He is the author of Stop Writing! Master Story Development Before You Write a Word. Every Story, co-founded by Cornue and Milena Govich in 2024, supports writers with story development resources, and its imprint, Every Story Press, publishes the book. The book and its companion tools are at stopwriting.com.

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SOURCE Every Story