The Writer's Guide to Writing Your Screenplay


Book Description

In this essential writer's guide, a professional screen-writer shares her know-how on the elements of writing for the screen, from the basics of character development and creating the structure to resolving problems and revising in only three drafts.




The Writer's Guide to Selling Your Screenplay


Book Description

With the average screenplay selling for $100,000 or more, every writer knows that movies are where the money is. In The Writer's Guide to Selling Your Screenplay, veteran screenwriter Cynthia Whitcomb reveals everything today's aspiring screenwriter needs to know about selling a movie script to Hollywood, cable TV, or network television. Readers will find proven, award-winning strategies for getting the right people to look at your work, marketing a spec script, making a splash at pitch meetings, and much more. Plus, they'll discover what today's top agents and producers look for in a script, the types of deals you can expect to make, as well as an appendix of agents who specialize in handling scriptwriters.




Prewriting Your Screenplay


Book Description

Prewriting Your Screenplay cements all the bricks of a story’s foundations together and forms a single, organic story-growing technique, starting with a blank slate. It shows writers how to design each element so that they perfectly interlock together like pieces of a puzzle, creating a stronger story foundation that does not leave gaps and holes for readers to find. This construction process is performed one piece at a time, one character at a time, building and incorporating each element into the whole. The book provides a clear-cut set of lessons that teaches how to construct that story base around concepts as individual as the writer’s personal opinions, helping to foster an individual writer’s voice. It also features end-of-chapter exercises that offer step-by-step guidance in applying each lesson, providing screenwriters with a concrete approach to building a strong foundation for a screenplay. This is the quintessential book for all writers taking their first steps towards developing a screenplay from nothing, getting them over that first monumental hump, resulting in a well-formulated story concept that is cohesive and professional.




How to Write a Selling Screenplay


Book Description

Covers the basics of scriptwriting, from deciding on a story and characters through the finished work, and analyzes a sample script




The Tools of Screenwriting


Book Description

In The Tools of screenwriting, the authors illuminate the essential elements of cinematic storytelling. These elements are guideposts for the aspiring screenwriter, and they can be used in different ways to accomplish a variety of ends. Questions of dramatic structure, plot, dialogue, character development, setting, imagery, and other crucial topics are discussed as they apply to the special art of filmmaking.




Writing Movies


Book Description

To break into the screenwriting game, you need a screenplay that is not just good, but great. Superlative. Stellar. In Writing Movies you'll find everything you need to know to reach this level. And, like the very best teachers, Writing Movies is always practical, accessible, and entertaining. The book provides a comprehensive look at screenwriting, covering all the fundamentals (plot, character, scenes, dialogue, etc.) and such crucial-but seldom discussed-topics as description, voice, tone, and theme. These concepts are illustrated through analysis of five brilliant screenplays-Die Hard, Thelma & Louise, Tootsie, Sideways, and The Shawshank Redemption. Also included are writing assignments and step-by-step tasks that take writers from rough idea to polished screenplay. Written by Gotham Writers' Workshop expert instructors, Writing Movies offers the same winning style and clarity of presentation that have made a success of Gotham's previous book Writing Fiction, which is now in its 7th printing. Named the "best class for screenwriters" in New York City by MovieMaker Magazine, Gotham Writers' Workshop is America's leading private creative writing school, offering classes in Manhattan and on the Web at www.WritingClasses.com. The school's interactive online classes, selected as "Best of the Web" by Forbes, have attracted thousands of aspiring writers from across the United States and more than sixty countries.




Now Write! Screenwriting


Book Description

An essential handbook featuring never-before-published writing exercises from the acclaimed screenwriters of Raging Bull, Ali, Terminator 2, Fame, Groundhog Day, Cape Fear, "Lost", "True Blood", "The Shield", and many other hit films and television shows. Now Write! Screenwriting-the latest addition to the Now Write! writing guide series-brings together the acclaimed screenwriters of films like the Oscar-winning Raging Bull, Oscar- nominated Ali, era-defining blockbuster Terminator 2, musical classic Fame, hit series "Lost" "True Blood" and "The Shield," Groundhog Day, Cape Fear, Chicken Run, Reversal of Fortune, Before Sunrise, Mystic Pizza, Indecent Proposal, and many more, to teach the art of the story. *Learn about why it is sometimes best to write what you don't know from Christina Kim ('Lost') *Find out how Stephen Rivele (Ali, Nixon) reduces his screenplay ideas down to their most basic elements, and uses that as a writing guide *Learn why you should focus on your character, not your plot, when digging yourself out of a plot home from Danny Rubin (Groundhog Day) *Take tips from Karey Kirkpatrick (Chicken Run, The Spiderwick Chronicles) on how to give an inanimate object intense emotional significance *Let Kim Krizan (Before Sunrise, Before Sunset) teach you how to stop your internal critic dead in his tracks This lively and easy-to-read guide will motivate both aspiring and experienced screenwriters. No other screenwriting book offers advice and exercises from this many writers of successful, iconic films.




Getting It Write


Book Description

A comprehensive guide with practical advice to help writers prepare themselves and their work for the screen industry, indentify available paths, and make the leap from aspirant to working professional.




Turn & Burn


Book Description

The Turn & Burn methodology offers practical, real-world advice for quickly turning stories - within any genre - into engaging and authentic movie scripts.




Writer's Guide to Hollywood Producers, Directors and Screenwriter's Agents, 1999-2000


Book Description

In Hollywood, it's not just what you know, it's "who you know that counts! With "Writer's Guide to Hollywood Producers, Directors, and Screenwriter's Agents you have the friend you need to succeed in this very competitive industry. In this insider's guide, Hollywood screenwriter Skip Press tells you who's who, what they're looking for, and, most important, how to reach them--by mail, phone, fax, even e-mail. Also included: - Essential information on submission protocols and preferences for hundreds of agencies and production companies - Extensive interviews with key people - How Hollywood works: An A-Z tour - Books, CD-ROMs, and other back doors to Hollywood - And much, much more! "Skip Press has written a book that combines fearless opinions and invaluable hard facts, both of which are hard to find in Hollywood. This book is thoughtfully written, clearly laid out, and of great value to beginners and old-timers alike." --Gareth Wigan, co-vice chairman, Columbia TriStar Motion Picture Group "An invaluable resource for breaking into the movie and television business." --Barbara Anne Hiser, Emmy-winning cable and network television producer "[This book is] not only entertaining but a valuable tool for anyone interested in show business." --Paul Mason, Sr., vice president of Production, Viacom "The bonus for any reader of this book is that Skip Press is just a good writer--accessible, clear, persuasive, motivating, and easy-to-understand." --Jerry B. Jenkins, author of the "Left Behind series and "'Twas the Night Before "An insightful guide to the intricate Hollywood network." --Oliver Eberle, founder and CEO, ShowBIZ Data.com Aboutthe Author Skip Press, a novelist, screenwriter, and producer, is the author of "How to Write What You Want and Sell What You Write and dozens of other titles, as well as hundreds of entertainment articles and short stories. He lives in the Los Angeles area.