What screenwriting book changed your life for better or worst...

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  • What screenwriting book changed your life for better or worst...

    Hey all...

    If you had to name one book that had a quantum effect on your screenwriting style and changed your life for the better....

    What would that book be...

    I strongly believe, that behind every successful upcoming screenwriter there is a book..

    Regards,
    Benjamin Ray
    [email protected]
    www.hollywoodtoronto.com
    You know what the news is. Now you're going to hear ... the rrrrest of the story!
    Paul Harvey
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  • #2
    Re: What screenwriting book changed your life for better or worst...

    Each of the books I have read has been like a breadcrumb in the forest, but the first one that allowed me to see the way to grandma's house was Christopher Vogler's "The Writer's Journey." It was the first time I got a real glimpse beyond the "beginning, middle, end" mantra I had heard in every writing class I had taken prior.
    "All of us trying to be the camera behind the camera behind the camera. The last story in line. The Truth" Chuck Palahniuk - Haunted

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    • #3
      Re: What screenwriting book changed your life for better or worst...

      Karl Iglesia's Writing For Emotional Impact because it delves into the psyche of writing vs the same old chunky how-to building blocks every other book handles... and Secrets Of Action Screenwriting by Bill Martell, cause like I write action stuff so a no brainer, and it's good advice
      "you have to write right, right?" -- Todd Gordon

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      • #4
        Re: What screenwriting book changed your life for better or worst...

        Originally posted by Moviequill View Post
        Karl Iglesia's Writing For Emotional Impact because it delves into the psyche of writing vs the same old chunky how-to building blocks every other book handles... and Secrets Of Action Screenwriting by Bill Martell, cause like I write action stuff so a no brainer, and it's good advice
        I have read this as well. Great book.
        I read to the first typo

        -Hollywood agent

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        • #5
          Re: What screenwriting book changed your life for better or worst...

          Originally posted by Moviequill View Post
          Karl Iglesia's Writing For Emotional Impact because it delves into the psyche of writing vs the same old chunky how-to building blocks every other book handles... and Secrets Of Action Screenwriting by Bill Martell, cause like I write action stuff so a no brainer, and it's good advice
          Iglesias and Truby are on my "to read" list.
          "All of us trying to be the camera behind the camera behind the camera. The last story in line. The Truth" Chuck Palahniuk - Haunted

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          • #6
            Re: What screenwriting book changed your life for better or worst...

            Save The Cat helped to finally see the value of a commercially-viable logline and concept. I think it's Blake's humerous and humble style.

            Then Truby's Anatomy of Story, mainly the chapters on plot, 7 steps, 22 steps, and the scene weave truly explained to me the tracking of moral and pyschological needs, weaknesses, and revelations throught the story and how characters can oppose each other.

            Take that and throw in Pilar Alessandra's DVD and outline materials from her classes on organization, structure, and content and you've got quite a roadmap to designing and writing a killer script.

            I've read McKee, Campbell, Aristole and sometimes it's all just way too dry and thick and boring.
            a touch is a blow, a sound is a noise, a misfortune is a tragedy, a joy is an ecstasy, a friend is a lover, a lover is a god, and failure is death. Pearl Buck

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            • #7
              Re: What screenwriting book changed your life for better or worst...

              Originally posted by MichaelZoe View Post
              Save The Cat helped to finally see the value of a commercially-viable logline and concept. I think it's Blake's humerous and humble style.

              Then Truby's Anatomy of Story, mainly the chapters on plot, 7 steps, 22 steps, and the scene weave truly explained to me the tracking of moral and pyschological needs, weaknesses, and revelations throught the story and how characters can oppose each other.

              Take that and throw in Pilar Alessandra's DVD and outline materials from her classes on organization, structure, and content and you've got quite a roadmap to designing and writing a killer script.

              I've read McKee, Campbell, Aristole and sometimes it's all just way too dry and thick and boring.
              For my undergrad I have to take a capstone project where I'm creating a project that illustrates the steps a novice screenwriter outside of LA can go through to break in (while applying it as well). Part of the project was creating an annotated bibliograhy. I've read Trottier, Egri, Campbell, Vogler, McKee, Hunter, Snyder, Seger, Epstein, Walter...and I think my reading about screenplays is over for a while . Now I'll just read screenplays and compare them to my own work for a while.
              "All of us trying to be the camera behind the camera behind the camera. The last story in line. The Truth" Chuck Palahniuk - Haunted

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              • #8
                Re: What screenwriting book changed your life for better or worst...

                I think I may have read them all. I really caught the bug about 14 years ago. I was working at a law firm with the Brother in Law of the Farrelly's, Scott Rosenberg's College roomate and Barbara Delinsky's ( Romance Novelists Husband).... So I dropped a good portion of my tax returns and bought every book there was back then from Field to Walter....

                I wish I could unread some of the crap....
                I've gotten more out of just reading screenplays, more tso than the books.

                If I had to choose a few that I consider formative, at least to me, I'd read Tom Lazurus's first book, Epstein's "Craft Screenwriting" and for general writing, I recommend that anyone who can hold a pen read Sol Stein's "On Writing". I like David Morrell's book on writing as well.
                He who laughs last is mentally slow

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