Screenwriting Resources
February 19, 2008 · Written by Melissa Donovan
No matter what you write, it helps to have a decent stockpile of resource books. These might guide you in the craft of writing, or help you understand the broader implications of storytelling. They’ll provide inspiration and offer guidance to get you through the entire writing process. Most screenwriters start out with Syd Field’s well known book, Screenplay: The Foundations of Screenwriting
and that’s why it’s our featured book this month. But there are plenty of other resources that will come in handy. Here are just a few of them.
I love the Dummies series, and although I haven’t heard much about this book, it’s sure to be a great starter resource for anyone who wants to explore screenwriting but doesn’t have the faintest idea how to get started. It covers character development, story generation, dialog, and adaptation, and explains all the details about formatting, which is the first critical thing to learn if you’re thinking about screenwriting. It’s sure to be the perfect book for someone just getting ready to explore screenwriting.
Written primarily for beginners, Writing Screenplays That Sell: The Complete, Step-By-Step Guide for Writing and Selling by Michael Hauge is billed by Hollywood Scriptwriter as “The most practical and best single book on the subject.” This book takes a close look at screenwriting methods and includes an analysis of the script from the hit movie The Karate Kid
. One customer review goes so far as to say “If my house were burning, and I could only rescue ONE screenwriting book of the 60 that I own and (yes) have read, it would be [this one].”
The first filmmaker to publicly credit Joseph Campbell’s The Hero with a Thousand Faces
was George Lucas (you know, the guy who made Star Wars
). This book explores the universal themes found in myths across cultures and over time. Lucas said, “in reading The Hero with a Thousand Faces I began to realize that my first draft of Star Wars was following classic motifs…so I modified my next draft [of Star Wars] according to what I’d been learning about classical motifs and made it a little bit more consistent….” The great thing about this book is it will help you understand storytelling, and is just as useful to a novelist as a screenwriter. While it can be used as a formula, it can also be used as a way to better understand themes and motifs that resonate with readers and moviegoers.
Next week, we’ll look at even more resources–some of the best films and screenplays throughout history, so check back for that.
Do you have any screenwriting resources that you’d like to add to this list? Leave your suggestions in the comments!
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Great resources, especially the Joseph Campbell.
There are also some good free software packages that are useful for scriptwriting (I discovered them during last year’s Script Frenzy). RoughDraft and yWriter are great for large projects.
Of the two, I prefer yWriter.
Kat, I love Campbell’s work. I’ll have to look into RoughDraft and yWriter. I’m thinking of doing a list of online screenwriting resources before the month is over, so maybe I’ll include those if I do. Thanks!
These look like amazing resources, Melissa! Thanks for sharing them with us.
Hi, Melissa,
You can’t do better than Blake Snyder’s Save the Cat! Goes to the Movies: The Screenwriter’s Guide to Every Story Ever Told. (For a sneak peek, you can listen to Blake’s January 27th interview on The Writing Show.)
Blake’s approach consists of two major insights: 1) Almost every successful screenplay falls into one of 10 story types, and 2) Each one adheres to a consistent beat by beat structure. In this book, Blake analyzes 50 movies in terms of both story type and beat by beat structure. Truly amazing, and very important work!
@Michele, Thanks! I think these are solid resources, especially for beginners.
@Paula, It’s great to see you here! It sounds like Blake Snyder’s work would be extremely helpful in looking at formulas, which I understand are fairly common in screenplays, as well as novels. I’ll have to check it out. Thanks!