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Click above to read more about our featured selections, or below to browse!
500 Ways to Beat the Hollywood Script Reader: Writing the Screenplay the Reader Will Recommend
by Jennifer M. Lerch
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 it — or not — to the studios, directors, and stars. Designed for quick and easy access, these 500 points are a step-by-step recipe.
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Advanced Screenwriting: Raising Your Script to the Academy Award Level
by Linda Seger
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Adventures in the Screen Trade
Reissue Edition
Goldman’s classic is still the best and most entertaining peek into how to write for film — and why you might not want to.
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Alternative Scriptwriting: Writing Beyond the Rules
by Ken Dancyger
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The Anatomy of Story: 22 Steps to Becoming a Master Storyteller
by John Truby
John Truby is one of the most respected and sought-after story consultants in the film industry, and his students have gone on to pen some of Hollywood’s most successful films, including Sleepless in Seattle, Scream, and Shrek. The Anatomy of Story is his long-awaited first book, and it shares all his secrets for writing a compelling script. Based on the lessons in his award-winning class, Great Screenwriting, The Anatomy of Story draws on a broad range of philosophy and mythology, offering fresh techniques and insightful anecdotes alongside Truby’s own unique approach to building an effective, multifaceted narrative.
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Aristotle’s Poetics for Screenwriters: Storytelling Secrets from the Greatest Mind in Western Civilization
by Michael Tierno
An insightful how-to guide for writing screenplays that uses Aristotle’s great work as a guide.
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The Art of Adaptation: Turning Fact and Fiction into Film
by Linda Seger
Synopsis:
Adaptations have long been the mainstay of Hollywood films — not only books, but also short stories, plays, musicals, and true-life experiences. This comprehensive, step-by-step handbook for both aspiring and already established screenwriters draws on examples from well-known adaptations and includes interviews with some of today’s top screenwriters.
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The Art of Screen Adaptation: Top Writers Reveal Their Craft
by Alistair Owen
Synopsis: Producers and audiences are hungrier than ever for stories, and a lot of those stories begin life as a book—but how exactly do you transfer a story from the page to the screen? Alistair Owen puts all these questions and many more to some of the top names in screenwriting, including Hossein Amini (Drive), Jeremy Brock (The Last King of Scotland), Moira Buffini (Jane Eyre), and Lucinda Coxon (The Danish Girl).
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Ask the Pros: Screenwriting: 101 Questions Answered by Industry Professionals
by Howard Meibach
From the Author: This book is the result of countless questions that Final Draft users have been asking us throughout the years. Questions like “How do I get started in the business?”, “What do I do when I finish my screenplay?”, “Do I need an agent and how do I get one?” We went straight to the Hollywood pros in our database for answers to many questions.
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The Big Picture: Who Killed Hollywood? and Other Essays
by William Goldman
Amazon.com: “The trouble with the Oscar show is that it’s too short,” William Goldman writes more than once in these infectiously droll essays about Hollywood stars, box office roulette, vintage movie years, and the illogic of Saving Private Ryan. Any other writer would be in deep ironical mode saying that, but the great screenwriter (All the President’s Men, The Princess Bride) and giddy movie enthusiast is hardly a “prevailing view” kind of guy.
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Breakfast with Sharks: A Screenwriter’s Guide to Getting the Meeting, Nailing the Pitch, Signing the Deal, and Navigating the Murky Waters of Hollywood
by Michael Lent
From Publishers Weekly: “Writing a script, or making a short film, or taking a dozen film theory courses in no way prepares you for what Hollywood is really like,” declares Lent, a columnist for Creative Screenwriting Magazine who has worked on nine feature film projects . . . . Lent’s guide is above all realistic, and his straight-shooting, no-nonsense tone is often leavened with humor. He’s thorough as well, discussing everything from relocating to L.A. and dealing with rejection to making pitches and negotiating contracts. He even tells would-be screenwriters where to rub elbows with their colleagues . . . . Though Lent’s book contains little direction on actually writing a screenplay, it’s an impressive, useful guide to the larger world of movie-making.
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Cinematic Storytelling: The 100 Most Powerful Film Conventions Every Writer Should Know
by Jennifer Van Sijll
What the industry’s most succcessful writers and directors have in common is that they have mastered the cinematic conventions specific to the medium.
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Clause by Clause: The Screenwriter’s Legal Guide
by Stephen Breimer
One of the most powerful entertainment lawyers in Hollywood offers an invaluable guide for screenwriters, agents, attorneys, and film students which provides easy-to-understand, expert advice on all the legal issues involved in selling a screenplay.
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Crafting Short Screenplays That Connect
by Claudia H. Johnson
Exercise-based text puts the student’s work at the center of the screenwriting course. Breaks the complex craft of screenwriting into teachable/learnable phrases.
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Crafty Screenwriting
by Alex Epstein (Author)
The most innovative and creative screenwriting book yet, from an author who knows first-hand what it takes to get a movie made. Based on an award-winning website hailed as “smart enough for professional screenwriters and accessible enough for aspiring screenwriters,” Crafty Screenwriting is the first book not only to offer a successful screenwriter’s tricks of the trade, but to explain what development executives really mean when they complain that the “dialogue is flat,” or “the hero isn’t likeable.” Fresh, provocative, and funny, Alex Epstein diagnoses problem that other screenwriting books barely address, and answers questions they rarely ask, like “Why is it sometimes dangerous to know your characters too well before you start writing,” or “Why does your script have to be so much better than the awful pictures that get made every day?”
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Creating Unforgettable Characters
by Linda Seger
Seger is one of the most clear-eyed and gracefully straightforward of current how-to writers.
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Cut to the Chase: Writing Feature Films with the Pros at UCLA Extension Writers’ Program
by Linda Venis (editor)
Millions of people dream of writing a screenplay but don’t know how to begin, or are already working on a script but are stuck and need some targeted advice. Or maybe they have a great script, but no clue about how to navigate the choppy waters of show business. Enter Cut to the Chase, written by professional writers who teach in UCLA Extension Writers’ Program, whose alumnaes’ many credits include Pirates of the Caribbean: Curse of the Black Pearl; Twilight; and the Academy Award nominated Letters from Iwo Jima. From learning how to identify story ideas that make a good movie to opening career doors and keeping them open, this authoritative, comprehensive, and entertaining book, edited by Writers’ Program Director Linda Venis, will be the film-writing bible for decades to come.
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Dialogue: The Art of Verbal Action for Page, Stage, and Screen
by Robert McKee
The long-awaited follow-up to the perennially bestselling writers’ guide Story, from the most sought-after expert in the art of storytelling. Robert McKee’s popular writing workshops have earned him an international reputation. The list of alumni with Oscars runs off the page. The cornerstone of his program is his singular book, Story, which has defined how we talk about the art of story creation. Now, in Dialogue, McKee offers the same in-depth analysis for how characters speak on the screen, on the stage, and on the page in believable and engaging ways. From Macbeth to Breaking Bad, McKee deconstructs key scenes to illustrate the strategies and techniques of dialogue.
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The Dialogue — An Interview with Screenwriter Paul Haggis (Amazon Instant Video)
This is just one in the celebrated “Dialogue” series of interviews with top screenwriters. Visit the page to browse the entire series.
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Dr. Format Answers Your Questions
by David Trottier
Do you have a question about screenplay format or spec writing? Now you can have all of Dr. Format’s prescriptions in one place.
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Elements of Style for Screenwriters
by Paul Argentini
Amazon.com: For many first-time screenwriters, the most daunting aspect of getting underway is learning the proper format. Paul Argentini lends a helping hand with Elements of Style for Screenwriters. It’s a good nuts-and-bolts introduction to the terminology of filmmaking and a step-by-step guide to making sure your opus is properly formatted.
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Essentials of Screenwriting: The Art, Craft, and Business of Film and Television Writing
By Richard Walter
Anyone fortunate enough to win a seat in Professor Richard Walter’s legendary class at UCLA film school can be confident their career has just taken a quantum leap forward. His students have written more than ten projects for Steven Spielberg alone, plus hundreds of other Hollywood blockbusters and prestigious indie productions. In this updated edition, Walter integrates his highly coveted lessons and principles from Screenwriting with material from his companion text, The Whole Picture, and includes new advice on how to turn a raw idea into a great movie or TV script-and sell it. There is never a shortage of aspiring screenwriters, and this book is their bible.
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Fitzgerald Did It: The Writer’s Guide to Mastering the Screenplay
by Meg Wolitzer
Amazon.com: Unlike the many screenwriting guidebooks geared to ward Hollywood wannabes with little writing experience whatsoever, this one is intended for writers — particularly fiction writers and journalists — eager to make the leap to screenwriting. Blessedly absent are the tedious lessons about how to write; in their stead is an explanation, almost, in unlearning how to write. Wolitzer’s fine primer on the craft of screenwriting emphasizes visual drama, action, structure, and, most of all, overstatement. “In movies,” Wolitzer says, “art exaggerates life. Life becomes bigger, bolder, more brilliantly hued, as well as funnier, more tragic, more action-packed, more filled with coincidence.” Wolitzer also addresses such issues such as treatments, collaboration, adapting fiction to film, the differences between literary and film agents, and scriptwriting no-noes.
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Four Screenplays: Studies in the American Screenplay
by Syd Field
Synopsis:
The man the Hollywood Reporter called “the most sought-after screenwriting teacher in the world” analyzes four recent screenplays to show how a great script is written. Field provides frame-by-frame analysis of Thelma and Louise, Terminator 2: Judgement Day, The Silence of the Lambs and Dances With Wolves — and explains what made the films work and why.
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Gardner’s Guide to Animation Scriptwriting: The Writer’s Road Map
by Marilyn Webber, Nic Banks, Bonney Ford
Textbook Binding
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Getting Your Script Through the Hollywood Maze: An Insider’s Guide
by Linda Stuart
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Global Scriptwriting
by Ken Dancyger
Global Scriptwriting offers a look at an exciting new phase in screen storytelling, as writers and directors from all over the world infuse traditional forms with their own cultural values to create stories that have an international appeal and suggest a universality among readers, viewers, and listeners. A unique blend of screenwriting technique and film studies, Global Scriptwriting discusses screen stories as they have evolved through the years, focusing first on the basics of scriptwriting, then going on to afford a more sophisticated look at script via different models of scriptwriting: the Hollywood model, the independent model, the national model, and various alternative models. It examines the internationalization of storytelling, and illustrates how particular innovations have helped national screen stories to international success.
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Gotta Minute? Sell Your Screenplay: Your Guide to the Independent
Film and Television Producer
by Andrea Leigh Wolf
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Grow a Screenplay the Natural Way
by George Perez
Grow A Screenplay The Natural Way describes a method of writing a motion picture screenplay directly from a short story. The book is divided into three sections, which are: The Introduction; Part I, the story — contains the short story on which the screenplay is based; Part II, the screenplay — shows how a movie is written directly from the short story. In effect, the screenplay grows right out of the story! The market for this book is anyone and everyone who ever dreamed of writing a screenplay.
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The Hero Succeeds
by Kam Miller
In The Hero Succeeds, veteran TV writer Kam Miller shows you exactly how to create your own TV series — from concept to writing a professional pilot script. She covers essential elements such as character, world of the show, story engine, tone, and themes for dramas and sitcoms. Miller illustrates the practical application of her character-driven script structure in current successful TV shows, including Cinemax’s The Knick, NBC’s Hannibal, Amazon’s Transparent, BBC America’s Orphan Black, ABC’s Modern Family, FOX’s Empire, FXX’s It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia, AMC’s The Walking Dead, FOX’s Brooklyn Nine-Nine, ABC’s How To Get Away With Murder, Starz’s Outlander, CBS’s The Good Wife, Showtime’s Episodes, and many others. The Hero Succeeds shares professional screenwriting expertise, tools, and techniques previously available only to Miller’s students at USC’s School of Cinematic Arts and Boston University’s Film & Television program. Whether you write drama or comedy for broadcast, cable, or digital distribution, The Hero Succeeds is the guide you need to build or expand your TV career.
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The Hollywood Standard: The Complete and Authoritative Guide to Script Format and Style
by Christopher Riley
The Hollywood Standard describes in clear, vivid prose and hundreds of examples how to format every element of a screenplay or television script. A reference for everyone who writes for the screen, from the novice to the veteran, this is the dictionary of script format, with instructions for formatting everything from the simplest master scene heading to the most complex and challenging musical underwater dream sequence.
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Hot Property: Screenwriting in the New Hollywood
by Christopher Keane
Getting published in any genre but screenwriting may seem like a cinch after reading Keane’s book, which is meant to steer new writers through the cutthroat world.
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How Not to Write a Screenplay: 101 Common Mistakes Most Screenwriters Make
by Denny Martin Flinn
Finally, what may be the last screenwriting book a writer will ever need to buy! Written by a Hollywood screenwriter, How NOT to Write A Screenplay carefully identifies and examines the common mistakes screenwriters invariably make when writing a screenplay.
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How to Adapt Anything into a Screenplay
by Richard Krevolin
From concept to finished draft a nuts-and-bolts approach to adaptations. Drawing on his own experience and on fourteen years of teaching, screenwriter Richard Krevolin presents his proven five-step process for adapting anything from novels and short stories to newspaper articles and poems into a screenplay.
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How to Build a Great Screenplay: A Master Class in Storytelling for Film
by David Howard
Acclaimed USC screenwriting teacher David Howard has guided hundreds of students to careers in writing for film and television. Drawing on decades of practical experience and savvy, How to Build a Great Screenplay deconstructs the craft of screenwriting and carefully reveals how to build a good story from the ground up. Throughout the book, Howard clarifies his lessons through examples from some of the most successful Hollywood and international script-oriented films, including Pulp Fiction, American Beauty, Trainspotting, North by Northwest, Chinatown, and others.
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How to Manage Your Agent: A Writer’s Guide to Hollywood Representation
by Chad Gervich
How to Manage Your Agent is a fun, friendly guide to the world of literary representation. Enter the inner sanctums of Hollywood’s power-brokers and learn how they influence what pitches get bought, what projects get sold, and which writers get hired.
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How to Write a Movie in 21 Days: The Inner Movie Method
by Viki King
Amazon.com Recommended Book:
No book can find your ideas for you, but this one provides a great service in helping you discover and develop a story, and to come up with the completed script. King helps you learn to think cinematically, in the language of the movies, and to keep asking the essential questions as they work: What’s the story? Who is the story about? Do you care about the characters? Does anyone? King also tries to help you survive not just the structural pitfalls that can derail a script, but also the mental or emotional whirlpools that can prevent any artist from finishing a project.
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How to Write for Animation
by Jeffrey Scott
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I Could’ve Written a Better Movie Than That!: How to Make Six Figures as a Script Consultant Even If You’re Not a Screenwriter
by Derek Rydall
One of the best kept secrets in hollywood is the use of consultants to fine-tune scripts. Whether you are a screenwriter or not, if you have a second sense or insightful knowledge that can improve film storytelling, you may have just found a new way to make over $100,000 a year.
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I Liked It, Didn’t Love It: Screenplay Development De-mystified
by Rone Edwards, Monika Skerbelis
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Inside the Room: Writing Television with the Pros at UCLA Extension Writers’ Program
by by Linda Venis (Editor)
Television writers whose many produced credits include The Simpsons; Mad Men; Frasier; X-Files; Battlestar Gallactica; CSI: Miami; Law and Order; and House, M.D.; take aspiring writers through the process of writing their first spec script for an on-air series, creating one-hour drama and sitcom pilots that break out from the pack, and revising their scripts to meet pro standards. They also learn how to launch and sustain a writing career and get a rare look inside the process of creating, selling, and getting a TV show made.
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Inside The Writers’ Room: Conversations with American TV Writers
by Christina Kallas (Editor)
US television drama has gained recognition for its sophisticated narrative form, and the role of the writer has been central to this. Here television writers share their experiences and practices of writing for highly successful shows such as The Sopranos, Seinfeld, Cheers, Sex and the City, The Wire, Mad Men, The Big C and Boardwalk Empire. “Anyone who’s ever romanticised the writers’ room of US network/cable TV legend, this book — as gripping and thought-provoking as the best dramas it gets under the bonnet of — grants exclusive access to a world that’s equal parts hard, unforgiving reality and unfettered creative wonder.” – Andrew Collins, Film Editor, Radio Times, UK
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Laughing Out Loud: Writing the Comedy-Centered Screenplay
by Andrew Horton
Whoever wrote “Make ’em laugh!” knew that it’s easier said than done. But people love to laugh, and good comedy will always sell. With the help of this complete and entertaining guide, writers and would-be writers for film and television can look forward to writing comedy that goes far beyond stereotypic jokes and characters. “Andy Horton’s latest book is not only refreshing, insightful, and effortlessly scholarly; it’s also imbued with that rare quality so lacking in its field — a shameless sense of fun.” (Herschel Weingrod, screenwriter [Trading Places, Twins, Space Jam, Kindergarten Cop])
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Making a Good Script Great
by Linda Seger
Highly recommended. Thoughtful, down-to-earth, filled with good examples of great screenwriting in practice, and especially acute on that particularly tricky aspect of screenwriting: the sub-plot.
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Making a Good Writer Great: A Creativity Workbook for Screenwriters
by Linda Seger
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Making Movies
by Sidney Lumet
Synopsis:
From one of America’s most acclaimed directors comes a book that is both a professional memoir and a definitive guide to the art, craft, and business of the motion picture. Drawing on 40 years of experience on movies ranging from Long Day’s Journey Into Night to The Verdict, Lumet explains the painstaking labor that results in two hours of screen magic.
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Mind Your Business: A Hollywood Literary Agent’s Guide To Your Writing Career
by Michele Wallerstein
A former Hollywood literary agent explains the secrets of maneuvering in the world of Hollywood screenwriters. This book includes chapters on the agent-client relationship, how to network successfully, how to write the right query letter, and more.
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My Story Can Beat Up Your Story: Ten Ways to Toughen Up Your Screenplay from Opening Hook to Knockout Punch
by Jeffrey Schechter
a fun, eye-opening, ?brain-expanding, and often irreverent guide to writing stories that sell. Covering everything from Heroes to Villains, from Theme to Plot Points, from cooking up good ideas to a business plan for smart writers, this book forever eliminates that horrible feeling every writer goes through — staring at the blank page and wondering “what comes next?”
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Oscar-Winning Screenwriters on Screenwriting: The Award-Winning Best in the Business Discuss Their Craft
by Joel Engel
Joel Engel brings together interviews with the best screenwriters working today, each of whom has won an Academy Award for his or her work, and each of whom shares a wealth of knowledge, insight, and experience about this little understood facet of moviemaking. In each essay, writers such as Alan Ball (American Beauty), Eric Roth (Forrest Gump), Marc Norman (Shakespeare in Love), Tom Schulman (Dead Poet’s Society), Kurt Luedtke (Out of Africa), John Irving (The Cider House Rules), and many others explore and explain their craft and technique. Anyone interested in writing, making, or learning about movies will enjoy this behind-the-scenes compilation of wisdom and advice from Hollywood’s natural-born storytellers.
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The Perfect Pitch: How to Sell Yourself and Your Movie Idea to Hollywood
by Ken Rotcop, James K. Shea, Marlane McGarry (Editor)
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Pixar Storytelling: Rules for Effective Storytelling Based on Pixar’s Greatest Films
by Dean Movshovitz
Pixar Storytelling is about effective storytelling rules based on Pixar’s greatest films. Learn what Pixar’s core story ideas all have in common, how they create compelling, moving conflict and what makes their films’ resolutions so emotionally satisfying.
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Power Screenwriting: The 12 Stages of Story Development
by Michael Chase Walker
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Principles of Adaptation for Film and Television
by Ben Brady
Booknews, Inc.: Veteran television producer and screenwriter Brady explains to aspiring writers and writing teachers the ropes of turning any narrative into a salable movie or television script. The chapters include the transition, plot, character, dialogue, camera language, format, and assessing the adaptation.
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Real Screenwriting: Strategies and Stories from the Trenches
by Blake Snyder
This ultimate insider’s guide reveals the secrets that none dare admit, told by a show biz Veteran who’s proven that you can sell your script if you can save the cat!
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Rewrite: A Step-by-Step Guide to Strengthen Structure, Characters, and Drama in your Screenplay
By Paul Chitlik
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Save the Cat!: The Last Book on Screenwriting You’ll Ever Need
by Blake Snyder
As news of screenwriters getting seven-figure deals leaks to the masses, it’s no wonder hundreds of aspiring screenwriters come to Hollywood each day for a chance at easy money and glory. However, the reality is that writing and selling a screenplay is far easier said than done and requires that the author not only write a cohesive and complete script (and not just have an idea for a movie), but that he also have the knowledge of the filmmaking process and industry necessary to market and sell the screenplay. Real Screenwriting: Strategies and Stories from the Trenches provides the real deal on the art, craft, business and everyday life of a screenwriter.
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“Save the Cat Story Structure Software”: Further info or to order
Save the Cat! Strikes Back: More Trouble for Screenwriters to Get into … and Out of
by Blake Snyder
Blake Snyder, author of “Save the Cat!” and “Save the Cat! Goes to the Movies,” is back with the book countless readers and students have clamored for. Inspired by questions from his workshops, lectures, and emails, Blake listened and provides new tips, tactics, and techniques to solve your writing problems and create stories that resonate. “‘Save the Cat! Strikes Back’ is Blake’s best yet. It expands on his principles of storytelling in a breezy, colloquial style and gives us a deeper personal insight to the relentlessly positive mindset that powered his great success and his generous spirit. Blake’s life was far, far too short, but his work and his inspiring legacy will remain timeless.” –Rick Drew, movieScope Magazine
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Screen & Stage Marketing Secrets
by James Russell (Editor)
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Screen Teen Writers: How Young Screenwriters Can Find Success
by Christina Hamlett
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Screenplay: The Foundations of Screenwriting
by Syd Field
The most widely-used primer in screenwriting, particularly useful for its explanation of three act structure.
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On DVD: “Syd Field’s Screenwriting Workshop”: Further info or to order
The Screenplay Sell: What Every Writer Should Know
by Alan Trustman
The truth about the movie business and why it’s so tough to crack it, by the writer of The Thomas Crown Affair, Bullitt, They Call Me Mr. Tibbs, The Next Man.
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The Screenwriter’s Bible: A Complete Guide to Writing, Formatting, and Selling Your Script
by David Trottier
The 20th anniversary edition of one of the most popular, authoritative, and useful books on screenwriting. Walks you through the complete writing process, from nascent ideas through final revisions.
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Screenwriters’ Masterclass: Screenwriters Talk About Their Greatest Movies
Edited by Kevin Conroy Scott
Journalist and film industry insider Kevin Conroy Scott presents an invaluable screenwriting masterclass featuring extensive, never-before-published interviews with acclaimed screenwriters ranging from Hollywood pros to top writers in the US and European independent scenes. Each interview guides the reader through the entire creation process: how the writer handled the painstaking process of creating a three-dimensional world out of their imagination, what worked and what didn’t in the finished film–and why, collaborating with directors and actors, and the revision process.
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Screenwriters on Screenwriting
by Joel Engel
Midwest Book Review: The best screen writers in the business examine film-making processes and writer’s contributions to film efforts, using a question-and-answer format to explore such issues as writer controls over screenplays, characterization, and plot. An excellent guide to screen writing achievement, politics and realities.
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The Screenwriter’s Problem Solver: How to Recognize, Identify, and Define Screenwriting Problems
by Syd Field
Fixing a screenplay that seems dazed and confused might seem like Mission: Impossible, but you’ve got to have courage under fire. By identifying symptoms in the writing, Field isolates about 20 different screenwriting problems, each related to plot, character, or structure (after all, what else is there?). His fixes generally involve getting to know your characters or story better, through the use of automatic writing, biographical sketches, and the like.
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The Screenwriter’s Survival Guide: Or, Guerrilla Meeting Tactics and Other Acts of War
by Max Adams
Adams courteously assumes that you can already write or that you can at least get your hands on one of the zillions of books about writing techniques. She concentrates on what you really want to know. For example: The screenwriter’s uniform is (and this is unisex): jeans, high top sneakers, a plain T-shirt, and a loose casual jacket . . . And the sneakers are always frighteningly clean, as in “they may be sneakers, but by gum, they glow like they just came out of the box.” Other topics include pitching, the etiquette of “getting read,” and the care and feeding of agents.
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The Screenwriter’s Troubleshooter: The Most Common Screenwriting Problems and How to Solve Them
by Emmanuel Oberg
Building on his groundbreaking approach, Oberg identifies forty of the most common screenwriting problems and helps anyone involved in the script development process to resolve them. He explains in a clear, conversational style the possible causes leading to each problem and offers no-nonsense, actionable advice towards an organic, effective and creative solution.
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The Screenwriter Within: How to Turn the Movie in Your Head into a Salable Screenplay
by D. B. Gilles
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Screenwriting 101: The Essential Craft of Feature Film Writing
by Neill D. Hicks
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Screenwriting Behind Enemy Lines: Lessons from Inside the Studio Gates
by John Schimmel
A very pragmatic look at what “they” are looking for combined with techniques for delivering that. Includes “Tales from the Trenches,” lessons from various sets and development situations to illustrate the points being made, from one of the legendary production and development executives. John Schimmel has more than 20 years’ experience as a Hollywood studio development and production executive and producer with Warner Bros., with Michael Douglas and Steve Reuther’s company Douglas-Reuther at Paramount Studios, and as President of Production at Ascendant Pictures. He has worked on such films as The Fugitive, Batman, Interview with the Vampire, Outbreak, Face/Off, Lucky Number Slevin, and Lord of War.
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Screenwriting four Geniuses
by William D. Wolff
“Screenwriting four Geniuses” is a parody of self-help books, purporting to teach its readers how to make millions of dollars, effortlessly writing blockbuster screenplays for Hollywood. The title is a humorous take-off of the “for Dummies” series. But more than being merely a collection of jokes and gags, “Screenwriting four Geniuses” is a barbed, satirical and highly literate commentary on the greed- and fear-based mentality prevalent in the world of Hollywood filmmaking.
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Screenwriting from the Soul: Letters to an Aspiring Screenwriter
by Richard W. Krevolin, Jeff Arch
There are many books on the art of screenwriting, but none approaches the subject from the unique perspective of a dialogue between expert and novice. Written with wit and style in the form of an ongoing series of letters between a highly experienced, successful, but tired professor and a screenwriting novice, Screenwriting from the Soul is a heartfelt exploration of the screenwriting world.
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Screenwriting is Rewriting: The Art and Craft of Professional Revision annotated edition Edition
by Jack Epps Jr. (Author)
If there is one skill that separates the professional screenwriter from the amateur, it is the ability to rewrite successfully. From Jack Epps, Jr., the screenwriter of Top Gun, Dick Tracy, and The Secret of My Success, comes a comprehensive guide that explores the many layers of rewriting.
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Screenwriting Unchained: Reclaim Your Creative Freedom and Master Story Structure
by Emmanuel Oberg
This practical, no-nonsense guide leaves behind one-size-fits-all story theories and offers a refreshingly modern approach to story structure, making it a precious resource for anyone involved creatively in the Film and TV industry (or aspiring to be): writers, directors, producers, development execs, showrunners and, more generally, storytellers eager to reach a wide audience at home and abroad without compromising their creative integrity.
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Screenwriting Updated: New (and Conventional) Ways of Writing for the Screen
by Linda Aronson
Dealing as it does with the new genre of multi-story films, this a welcome new addition to the how-to library.
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Script Magic: Subconscious Techniques to Conquer Writer’s Block
by Marisa D’Vari
From the Inside Flap: If you’ve ever spent hours staring down a blank page or a blinking cursor on an empty computer screen – and what writer hasn’t – this book may be the answer to your prayers.
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ScriptBuddy Screenplay Format Guide
by ScriptBuddy
You’ll never have to pore over dozens of screenplay books to find the answer to formatting questions. ScriptBuddy has done all of the research for you.
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The Script Selling Game: A Hollywood Insider’s Look at Getting Your Script Sold and Produced
by Kathie Fong Yoneda
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Script Tease: Today’s Hottest Screenwriters Bare All
by Dylan Callaghan
Diablo Cody (Juno), Darren Aronofsky (The Wrestler), and Seth Rogan (Superbad) are among the scribes interviewed in Script Tease, your main line to the most current screenwriting wisdom. Their funny, even touching tales of how they made it despite the odds will give you a revealing look into what it really takes to get into the industry.
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Scriptwriting for Web Series: Writing for the Digital Age (2nd Edition)
by Marie Drennan (Author), Yuri Baranovsky (Author), Vlad Baranovsky (Author)
Containing in-depth advice on writing both short- and long-form webisodes as part of a series, as well as standalone pieces, Scriptwriting for Web Series goes beyond the screenwriting process to discuss production, promotion and copyright in order to offer a well-rounded guide to creating and distributing a successful web series. Written in a friendly, readable and jargon-free style by an experienced scriptwriting professor and two award-winning web series creators, it offers invaluable professional insights, as well as examples from successful series, sample scripts and interviews with key series creators, writers and industry professionals.
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Selling a Screenplay: The Screenwriter’s Guide to Hollywood
by Syd Field
First he told readers how to write it, then he told them how to perfect it. Now Syd Field takes them behind the movie moguls’ closed doors and shows how to sell a screenplay.
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Selling Yourself As a Scriptwriter in Hollywood: A 12-Step Marketing Plan for New & Used Screenwriters
by Peter W. Smith
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Short Film Scriptwriter’s Handbook
by Short Film Bureau (Editor)
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Stanley Kubrick and the Art of Adaptation: Three Novels, Three Films
by Greg Jenkins
Greg Jenkins’s thorough and highly readable analysis of several Kubrick films and the original works on which they’re based is both an exploration of the process and its end result. Jenkins chose Kubrick for several reasons. He is an eminently successful director-screenwriter whose oeuvre holds great critical and pop culture interest. Kubrick adapted 10 of his 12 commercial films (as of 1993) and has been vocal in his views on adaptive art, and finally, his ability to “control and safeguard his projects is exceptional among directors.”
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Sitcom Writers Talk Shop: Behind the Scenes with Carl Reiner, Norman Lear, and Other Geniuses of TV Comedy
by Paula Finn (Author), Ed Asner (Foreword), Carol Kane (Foreword)
Sitcom Writers Talk Shop: Behind the Scenes with Carl Reiner, Norman Lear, and Other Geniuses of TV Comedy is a collection of conversations with the writers responsible for some of the most memorable shows in television comedy. The men and women interviewed here include series creators, show runners, and staff writers whose talent and hard work have generated literally millions of laughs.
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Story: A Guide to Screenwriting
by Robert McKee
The long awaited book based on McKee’s hugely popular seminars. McKee’s story-based approach is a good complement to Syd Fields’ more structural approach, and is soundly rooted in lots of classic screenwriting examples. What’s more, Amazon.com offers the book at a great price!
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Story Maps: How to Write a GREAT Screenplay
by Daniel P Calvisi
Learn the secrets to writing a GREAT screenplay from a major Hollywood movie studio Story Analyst who will show you how to BLOW AWAY THE READER! Master the structure and principles used by 95% of commercial movies by studying detailed breakdowns, or “Story Maps,” of several recent hit movies in all different genres, including The Dark Knight, The Wrestler, How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days, Drag Me To Hell and the classics As Good As It Gets and Sunset Boulevard.
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Story Maps: 12 Great Screenplays
by Daniel Calvisi
Story Maps: 12 Great Screenplays is a companion book to Daniel Calvisi’s best-seller “Story Maps: How to Write a GREAT Screenplay.” This ebook breaks down 12 major movies, including Raiders of the Lost Ark, Up, Rocky, Sex and the City, X-Men, Black Swan, Juno, and The Matrix, into the detailed but easy-to-follow structural analysis known as the Story Map.
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STORY MAPS: TV Drama: The Structure of the One-Hour Television Pilot (Volume 4)
by Daniel Calvisi
Story Maps: TV Drama offers the first beat sheet for television screenwriters (“Save the Cat” for TV). This is the structural template that aspiring and professional TV writers have been looking for. A clear, practical, step-by-step method to write a pilot that adheres to Hollywood standards.
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That’s Not The Way It Works: A no-nonsense guide to the craft and business of screenwriting
by Bob Saenz
You want to be a screenwriter. You’ve read all the screenwriting books. But you’re left wanting more.Here is a fresh book written by a screenwriter who has spent years in the trenches.That’s Not The Way It Works is a no holds barred look at the craft and business of screenwriting, told in a “let’s sit down and chat over a cup (or pot) of coffee” manner. So grab a cup of coffee and start reading.You’ll get the inside scoop from a screenwriter who had more than a dozen produced screenplays between movies and television.
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This Business of Screenwriting
by Ron Suppa
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The TV Showrunner’s Roadmap: 21 Navigational Tips for Screenwriters to Create and Sustain a Hit TV Series
by Neil Landau
If you’ve ever dreamed of being in charge of your own network, cable, or web series, then this is the book for you. The TV Showrunner’s Roadmap provides you with the tools for creating, writing, and managing your own hit show. Combining his 20+ years as a working screenwriter and UCLA professor, Neil Landau expertly guides you through 21 essential insights to the creation of a successful show, and takes you behind the scenes with exclusive and enlightening interviews with showrunners from some of TV’s most lauded series, including Breaking Bad, Homeland, Modern Family, and The Walking Dead. From conception to final rewrite, The TV Showrunner’s Roadmap is an invaluable resource for anyone seeking to create a series that won’t run out of steam after the first few episodes.
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TV Writing On Demand: Creating Great Content in the Digital Era
by Neil Landau
Take a deep dive into writing for today’s audiences, against the backdrop of a rapidly evolving TV ecosystem. Among other essentials, readers will discover how to satisfy the binge viewer, develop iconic characters, foster audience alignment and allegiance, create a lasting, meaningful career in the evolving TV marketplace, and make the most of the plethora of new opportunities out there. A companion website offers additional content, including script excerpts, show bible samples, interviews with television content creators, and more. “This is like a masterclass in the art of creating television — both now and for whatever ‘television’ may become. Visionary, insightful and timely.” — Issa Rae, Golden Globe-nominated Writer/Producer/Actress: Insecure, The Mis-Adventures of Awkward Black Girl
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The Tyranny of Story: Audience Expectations and the Short Screenplay
by Ric Beairsto
This is the 2nd, expanded edition of the successful 1998 book about the art of storytelling in general, and the craft of short screenplay writing in particular.
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Which Lie Did I Tell?: More Adventures in the Screen Trade
by William Goldman
Amazon.com: Fans of the two-time Oscar-winning writer (Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, All the President’s Men) have anxiously waited for this follow-up since his career serpentined into a variety of big hits and critical bombs in the ’80s and ’90s. Here Goldman scoops on The Princess Bride (his own favorite), Misery, Maverick, Absolute Power, and others. Goldman’s conversational style makes him easy to read for the film novice but meaty enough for the detail-oriented pro. Like most sequels, Which Lie follows the structure of the original. Both Goldman books have three parts: stories about his movies, a deconstruction of Hollywood (here the focus is on great movie scenes), and a workshop for screenwriters. With its juicy facts and valuable sidebars on what makes good screenwriting, this is another entertaining must-read from the man who coined what has to be the most-quoted adage about movie-business success: “Nobody knows anything.”
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Who Needs Hollywood:
The Amazing Story of a Small Time Filmmaker who Writes the Screenplay, Raises the Production Budget, Directs, and Distributes the #3 Movie of the Year
by Joe Camp
An incredible story of slammed doors, rejection, ridicule, and ultimately a tenacity that brought home to Joe Camp the #3 movie of the year, with no help whatsoever from Hollywood. Camp has written, produced and directed seven theatrical motion pictures cumulatively grossing well over the equivalent of $600 million in today’s dollars, making him one of the most successful independent filmmakers of all time. This book is an inspiring insight into how to make things happen, against all odds, and confirmation that every dream is, in fact, possible.
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The Writer’s Journey – 25th Anniversary Edition: Mythic Structure for Writers
by Christopher Vogler
Originally an influential memo Vogler wrote for Walt Disney Animation executives regarding The Lion King, The Writer’s Journey details a twelve-stage, myth-inspired method that has galvanized Hollywood’s treatment of cinematic storytelling. A format that once seldom deviated beyond a traditional three-act blueprint, Vogler’s comprehensive theory of story structure and character development has met with universal acclaim, and is detailed herein using examples from myths, fairy tales, and classic movies. This book has changed the face of screenwriting worldwide over the last 25 years, and continues to do so.
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Writing for Animation, Comics, and Games
by Christy Marx
Writing for Animation, Comics, and Games explains the practical aspects of creating scripts for animation, comics, graphic novels, and computer games. It details how you can create scripts that are in the right industry format, and follow the expected rules for you to put your best foot forward to help you break-in to the trade. This book explains approaches to writing for exterior storytelling (animation, games); interior/exterior storytelling (comics and graphic novels), as well as considerations for non-linear computer games in the shortest, pithiest, and most economical way.
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Writing the Killer Treatment: Selling Your Story Without a Script
by Michael Halperin
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Writing Science Fiction and Fantasy Television
by Joseph Nazzaro
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Writing the Action-Adventure Film: The Moment of Truth
by Neill D. Hicks
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Writing the Romantic Comedy
by Billy Mernit
From the slapstick shenanigans of Hepburn and Grant in Bringing Up Baby to the sexy repartee of Shakespeare in Love, romantic comedies have delighted filmgoers — and challenged screenwriters — since Hollywood’s Golden Age. Whether you’re a first time screenwriter, or an intermediate marooned in the rewriting process, this thoroughly charming and insightful guide to the basics of crafting a winning script will take you step by step from “cute meet” all the way to “joyous defeat.”
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Writing Screenplays That Sell, New Twentieth Anniversary Edition
by Michael Hauge
From renowned Hollywood story consultant Michael Hauge, considered “one of the most sought after lecturers and script consultants in the U.S.” by Scriptwriter magazine, comes the ultimate concept-to-deal guide for writing and selling screenplays for movies and television, now fully revised and updated for the modern screenwriter
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Writing Short Films: Structure and Content for Screenwriters
by Linda Cowgill
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Writing Television Sitcoms (revised)
by Evan S. Smith
The ultimate all-in-one guide to writing a funny script, pitching a new show, and launching a successful career. AS digital technology reshapes the television industry, this new and expanded edition explains how today’s writers can get ahead of the curve.
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Writing Television Comedy
by Jerry Rannow
How to “jump start your funny bone” is the theme of this humorous, eye-opening guide to
conceiving, writing, and marketing a winning TV sitcom. The book tells how to construct a
story outline, develop character and dialogue, format scripts, pitch producers, and work
with studio executives, producers, directors, agents, and actors.
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Writing the Character-Centered Screenplay
by Andrew Horton
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Writing the Pilot
by William Rabkin
Conceiving and writing a pilot that can launch a series is a complex assignment even for a seasoned pro. This book will take you through the entire process, from your initial idea through the finished script. You’ll learn how to identify a concept that can carry one hundred episodes or more; how to create characters who will stay interesting year after year; how to design the unique world those characters will live in; how to identify the essential elements that will set your series apart from everyone else’s; and most importantly, how to capture it all in one 60-page script.
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Writing for Emotional Impact: Advanced Dramatic Techniques to Attract, Engage, and Fascinate the Reader from Beginning to End
by Karl Iglesias
In his best-selling 101 Habits of Highly Successful Screenwriters, screenwriter Karl Iglesias explored the working habits of A-list Hollywood scribes. Now, he breaks new ground by focusing on the psychology of the reader. Based on his acclaimed classes at UCLA Extension, Writing for Emotional Impact goes beyond the basics and argues that Hollywood is in the emotion-delivery business, selling emotional experiences packaged in movies and TV shows.
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Writing the Thriller Film: The Terror Within
by Neill D. Hicks
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Writing the TV Drama Series: How to Succeed as a Professional Writer in TV (2nd edition)
by Pamela Douglas
This 2nd edition of Douglas’s hit book gives the latest inside scoop on obtaining success in this highly competitive industry. This second edition takes readers inside Lost, Grey’s Anatomy, Battlestar Gallactica, and CSI: Miami, as well as the great shows covered in the first edition.
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Writing Treatments That Sell: How to Create and Market Your Story Ideas to the Motion Picture and TV Industry
by Chi-Li Wong, Kenneth J. Atchity
In this entertaining guide, writer-producers Ken Atchity and Chi-Li Wong tell readers everything they need to know to create an effective and salable treatment–one that includes such key elements as a compelling conflict, likable characters, plot twists, a climax, and visual drama.
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Your Screenplay Sucks!: 100 Ways to Make It Great
By William M. Akers
A lifetime member of the Writer’s Guild of America who has had three feature films produced from his screenplays, Akers offers beginning writers the tools they need to get their screenplay noticed.
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