So you want to be a screenwriter. One of the first things you do is turn to the books. But there are dozens of books out there, which ones are the best?
Well, I have read plenty of books on screenwriting, and here’s the Successity Blog's assessment of four of the ones which helped me the most:
The Screenwriter’s Bible (Dave Trottier)
This is known to be the “go-to” book for formatting rules. For instance, if you want to write a telephone scene, a dream sequence or a flashback, The Screenwriter’s Bible will tell you how to do it.
But it is so much more than that. It has a very useful, succinct, straightforward, no-nonsense section on screenplay structure taking plenty of examples from contemporary movies. It also has sections on marketing your script and how to deal with agents and write query letters, etc.
Basically, The Screenwriter’s Bible is a “must have”.
Making a Good Script Great (Linda Seger)
Linda Seger’s thesis about how to apply story structure is both less theoretical than Bob McKee’s and less analytical that Syd Field’s. It is a relatively practical book and is an essential read for anyone wanting to be a screenwriter. It gives you a good working guide about how to tackle structure and is an important springboard for reading some of Linda Seger’s other screenwriting manuals.
How to Write a Movie in 21 Days (Viki King)
This was the first screenplay manual I ever read, and it is very dear to my heart, although on one level it is a bit of a gimmick: no-one should really try to write a screenplay from conception to conclusion in just 21 days.
Look through the gimmick, however, and there is a wealth of basic structural information in this little book. It gives a good description about how to write from your heart and rewrite from your head. It’s also an excellent tool for dealing with writer’s block, garnering your creativity and getting it down on the page.
Although it has its flaws, this book comes highly recommended.
Writing Subtext (Linda Seger)
Bob McKee’s STORY deals very well with subtext, but only Linda Seger has written a whole book on the subject. At some stage of any screenwriter’s journey they will want to lift the quality of their script by focussing on subtext. If you want to see subtext in action in spades in a film you could do worse than watch is ORDINARY PEOPLE as Bob McKee suggests. Basically, though, all good films employ subtext and a movie without subtext would be completely “on the nose” and extremely clunky.
Linda Seger’s book is an excellent analysis of subtext in film and how to inject it into your screenwriting.
So, those are the key books I use and pile high on my desk alongside my laptop when I am writing. There are others, however, which I also find useful, and the Successity Blog will list some of these in due course.
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