The Art of Micro-Drama: Pace, Tension & the Perfect Hook with Octavia Mckenzie

Micro-dramas and vertical dramas are creating new opportunities for screenwriters, with stories designed to capture attention and keep audiences watching on their phones.

John Yorke Story invites you to this practical workshop, where Octavia will explore the craft of writing for this fast-growing format, focusing on script structure, tone, pacing and the techniques that make short-form stories compelling.

Participants will look at how to grab an audience's attention from those big impactful opening moments, build tension, deliver impactful twists and create hooks and cliffhangers that encourage viewers to keep watching.

The session will offer writers insight into how storytelling techniques can be adapted for shorter episodes, alongside practical approaches to developing engaging narratives for the vertical drama format.

More about Octavia
Octavia McKenzie is a produced writer/director known for swoony romantic comedies, whirlwind holiday shenanigans, and wild young adult adventures. Octavia collaborated on the bestselling book with screenwriter Isabel Drean, How to Write a Vertical Series in 10 Days. She is an award-winning screenwriter, recipient of the Rocaberti Screenplay Scholarship for The Adventures of Mona Lisa, and a top 10 Finalist in Stage 32’s Best Romantic Comedy contest for Lonestar Christmas. She is the author of 10 romance novels, and 4 other fiction titles produced as dramatic audiobooks. She is a panelist speaker at film conferences, including MIP London, and works as the Head of Script Development for a vertical movie studio. Her vertical microdrama, Craving My British Cowboy has 4.6 million views on Reelshort, also on Tattle TV, and Inverted.   

Octavia McKenzie is a Brit & an American. She has one son, a thousand books, and a Jane Austen obsession. She’s a wanderlust traveler, writing screenplays, romance novels, and vertical microdramas in her office – a  coffee shop somewhere in Europe.