Screenwriting Books you DIDN'T like?

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  • Screenwriting Books you DIDN'T like?

    Having posted that, none come to mind, immediately, but I thought it might make for another interesting discussion: what books did you buy on the topic that either confused you, or seemed overpriced for the content, or that brought nothing new to the fore?

    Julie Gray




  • #2
    Re: Screenwriting Books you DIDN'T like?

    OK. I'll go out on a limb for this one... Story by Robert McKee.

    It's not that it didn't offer anything - it did. I enjoyed his analyses of various successful films and I found the guts of what he was saying useful. Kind of.

    But I was so sure it would offer a whole new insight to the process that, well, didn't come. It was good. Useful in parts. But it didn't really tell me anything I hadn't read before. Or in any more accessible language. I found the chapter openings positively exhausting - all that justification and analogy about why this and that. Oyoyoyoy. Get on with it already!

    And then say something different. Or reveal more, anyway.

    So, I found Story to be overrated and genuinely disasppointing as a resource.



    OK. I'm ducking for cover now - I know there are diehard fans. But I only mention this book because I think many believe Story has a whole lot of answers that no one else offers. And, in my opinion, it doesn't. It's a comparatively expensive book (here anyway) and the courses even more so. Just think people should check it out for themselves first, before handing over hard earned dollars.
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    • #3
      Re: Screenwriting Books you DIDN'T like?

      Syd Field's Screenplay, which I read a couple of months ago for the first time. I thought he came off sounding like a pompous a$$. I took notes and ended up with about 2 pages of worthwhile information, but it was mostly stuff I already knew.

      "We're all immigrants now, man."
      - Zia (Patrick Fugit), "Wristcutters: A Love Story"

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      • #4
        Re: Screenwriting Books you DIDN'T like?

        Okay, I'll go way out on a limb - The Writer's Journey. Read it, got it, love Vogler, love Joseph Campbell but I felt the focus was too narrow and that he dwelt way too much on Star Wars. For a long time after I read it (and I'm talking years ago) I kept focusing on what the elixir was for my character insteading of thinking of that journey in more standard dramatic terms. It's probably just me. I respect the heck out of Vogler but of all the books I've read, that one helped me the least. I guess I didn't find it pragmatic enough - it was more head in the clouds.

        Julie Gray



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        • #5
          Re: Screenwriting Books you DIDN'T like?

          Originally posted by velysai View Post
          Syd Field's Screenplay, which I read a couple of months ago for the first time. I thought he came off sounding like a pompous a$$. I took notes and ended up with about 2 pages of worthwhile information, but it was mostly stuff I already knew.
          I recently read Screenplay for the first time a few months back, and I have to agree. What I find funny, though that book practically made the aspriring screenwriter biz what it is today, it's hardly ever listed in the top five among spec screenwriters.

          I read an older edition of Vogler's The Writer's Journey and I thought he dwelled too much on the Wizard of Oz. Personally, I think Hero of a Thousand Faces is overrated--basically it's a watered down version of Frazer's The Golden Bough.

          As for genuinely useless books, I'll go for Viki King's How To Write A Movie In 21 Days. I found Ms. King's tone to be too touchy-feely for my taste, and the only reason why I see that this book is still in print after two decades is its organizational approach, which is impossible to commit to. Does this woman seriously believe I can quit my day job?
          I want to be your assistant!
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          • #6
            Re: Screenwriting Books you DIDN'T like?

            I find Egri very useful.

            If you really like it you can have the rights
            It could make a million for you overnight

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            • #7
              Re: Screenwriting Books you DIDN'T like?

              There's a virus in my bloodstream that makes it impossible to say I don't like books. I buy a lot of books because, more than anything, I like reading the different authors's viewpoints on concepts. I've found there are a million ways to say the same thing but only a few say them with a useful clarity and focus. I'm constantly in search of that usefulness
              "These ideas are tools, not rules.-

              My blog

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              • #8
                Re: Screenwriting Books you DIDN'T like?

                Dramatica, I'm too stupid for this book, way over my head, too analytical. What a fun thread La Fem.

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                • #9
                  Re: Screenwriting Books you DIDN'T like?

                  Go to today's Rouge Wave for a link to someone who shares my feelings about the Hero's Journey (not the writer's journey but, you know...close a darn 'nough).

                  Julie Gray



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                  • #10
                    Re: Screenwriting Books you DIDN'T like?

                    Joseph Campbell stole my anima!
                    "Tone is now engaged in a furious Google search for Leighton Meester's keester." -- A friend of mine

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                    • #11
                      Re: Screenwriting Books you DIDN'T like?

                      Originally posted by Miss Modular View Post
                      As for genuinely useless books, I'll go for Viki King's How To Write A Movie In 21 Days.
                      Couldn't agree more. Waste of time.

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                      • #12
                        Re: Screenwriting Books you DIDN'T like?

                        I usually don't "like" any of them myself. I end up using about ten pages worth of ideas on craft out of each book.

                        But I have a million of them laying around. I get something out of all of them but haven't found any approaching gospel. It's really not about the books though - I think it has more to do with where I'm at in my writing and what I've become ready to learn at that moment.

                        Story is probably the book I've hated the most. Just for me now - I'd take a bullet in the head before I read that one again

                        One book I swear by is Max Adam's "The Screenwiters Survival Guide" that I think may be out of print. It's not a how to write a screenplay book though.

                        When I stop to think about it, I think Field's Screenplay gave me the terms and definitions I needed when I began to articulate my ideas into a form and put them to paper. But I rarely look at it any more and never really followed his formulas.

                        Bot
                        Since I sensed a sudden lack of appreciation for my presence, I hopped out of the Jumpy-jump, snatched my glow-stick from the fridge and galloped away on the Rent-A-Pony. - Stolen from Jcorona

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                        • #13
                          Re: Screenwriting Books you DIDN'T like?

                          Originally posted by nic.h View Post
                          OK. I'll go out on a limb for this one... Story by Robert McKee.

                          But I was so sure it would offer a whole new insight to the process that, well, didn't come. It was good. Useful in parts. But it didn't really tell me anything I hadn't read before. Or in any more accessible language. I found the chapter openings positively exhausting - all that justification and analogy about why this and that. Oyoyoyoy. Get on with it already!

                          And then say something different. Or reveal more, anyway.

                          So, I found Story to be overrated and genuinely disasppointing as a resource.
                          I second that!

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                          • #14
                            Re: Screenwriting Books you DIDN'T like?

                            Just noticed this thread now. Hated "Story". Anybody wanna buy a barely used copy? Only got through half of it.

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                            • #15
                              Re: Screenwriting Books you DIDN'T like?

                              The book "Find the Funny" was terrible.
                              "Take the thing you love, and make it your life"--Californication. [email protected]

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