Screenwriting Books
The Writer’s Journey : Mythic Structure for Writers
Book Description
In 1993, The Writer’s Journey became one of the most popular books on writing of the last 50 years. Now, the 2nd Edition provides new insights and observations from Vogler’s pioneering work in mythic structure for writers. Read the rest of this entry »
Story: Substance, Structure, Style, and the Principles of Screenwriting
Writing for the screen is quirky business. A writer must labor meticulously over his or her prose, yet very little of that prose is ever heard by filmgoers. The few words that do reach the audience, in the form of the characters’ dialogue, are, according to Robert McKee, best left to last in the writing process. (”As Alfred Hitchcock once remarked, ‘When the screenplay has been written and the dialogue has been added, we’re ready to shoot.’ “) In Story, McKee puts into book form what he has been teaching screenwriters for years in his seminar on story structure, which is considered by many to be a prerequisite to the film biz. Read the rest of this entry »
The Screenwriter’s Bible: A Complete Guide to Writing, Formatting, and Selling Your Script
How does a spec script differ from a shooting script? What kind of fasteners should one use to bind a script? How did the term MOS come to mean without sound? You’ll find the answers to these pressing questions and much more in David Trottier’s eminently usable Screenwriter’s Bible. The avuncular Trottier–a writer-producer, script consultant, [...]
The Screenwriter Within : How to Turn the Movie in Your Head into a Salable Screenplay
Book Description
If you’ve ever dreamed of writing a screenplay, The Screenwriter Within is the book for you. Insightful, inspirational, and wildly irreverent, it takes you through all the stages of the writing process, using references to hit movies and the author’s personal experience to show you how to:
Making a Good Writer Great: a Creativity Workbooks for Screenwriters
Book Description
In any creative endeavor, a knowledge of craft by itself, no matter how sound or thorough, is simply not sufficient to allow for the creation and growth of truly original work. While craft may provide structural tools, it does not address the most basic and universal element of all artistic work-the creative process.
Magnolia : The Shooting Script (Newmarket Shooting Script Series Book)
At three hours long, Paul Thomas Anderson’s Magnolia qualifies as an epic, with a broad scope of characters whose lives become entwined over the course of a day in the San Fernando Valley. Despite its vast canvas, though, this is probably one of the most intimate epics you’ll ever experience, because Anderson and his cast [...]
How Not to Write a Screenplay: 101 Common Mistakes Most Screenwriters Make
How Not to Write a Screenplay is an invaluable addition to any aspiring screenwriter’s shelf–and you’d best make the shelf within arm’s reach of the computer. Author Dean Martin Flinn, an experienced script reader, details the common rookie mistakes that drive script readers crazy. Flinn makes no pretense of being able to teach anyone how [...]
American Beauty: The Shooting Script (Newmarket Shooting Scripts)
“I read the screenplay and nearly fell out of bed. I thought I better meet him quick before someone else read it.”–Kevin Spacey
Actors and critics alike have praised Alan Ball’s first feature film screenplay, which tells the off-kilter story of a midlife crisis suffered by Lester Burnham (played by Spacey). For fans of the film’s [...]
500 Ways to Beat the Hollywood Script Reader : Writing the Screenplay the Reader Will Recommend
Book Description
If Your Screenplay Can’t Get Past the Hollywood Reader, It Can’t Get to Hollywood
This ultimate insider’s guide to screenwriting is designed to get you past the fiercest gatekeepers in Hollywood: the Hollywood script readers. This small army of freelancers will be among the first to read and evaluate your script and then to recommend [...]
