Can the pros recommend ANY writing books?

[mariot]

I tried to change the thread title to "Essential books, scripts and how the pros learned their craft" to include related topics others want to know.


Please tell us everything!

Thanks.

[Patrick Sweeney]

Re: Can the pros recommend ANY writing books?

Not a pro, but I found Your Screenplay Sucks by William Akers and How Not to Write a Screenplay by Denny Martin Flinn useful for lots of different sorts of basic advice on everything from plotting to practical writing. Hope that's helpful.

[mariot]

Re: Can the pros recommend ANY writing books?

Not a pro, but I found Your Screenplay Sucks by William Akers and How Not to Write a Screenplay by Denny Martin Flinn useful for lots of different sorts of basic advice on everything from plotting to practical writing. Hope that's helpful.

Thanks. I have the first one. It seems to be a useful checklist. I'll look at the other.

[sarajb]

Re: Can the pros recommend ANY writing books?

I really liked Stephen King's On Writing and Mamet's Three Uses of the Knife.

[SoCalScribe]

Re: Can the pros recommend ANY writing books?

Not a pro writer, but I used to read a ton of screenwriting books. I think there was value to all of them... when taken with a grain of salt. I think it's interesting to see/hear different perspectives on how to write, what's effective, etc. And I think that I've probably taken something away from all the screenwriting books I've read, even if it's a way that doesn't work for me, or an alternative point of view that merely gets me to consider my own writing in a different light.

For me, screenwriting books are a resource, just like these forums, screenwriting classes, etc. You have to go into it with the expectation not of treating the advice as gospel, but understanding that you have to synthesize the information, consider it, maybe even experiment with it, and ultimately find a writing process that works for you as an individual.

I've read Screenplay, Story, The Screenwriter's Bible, How NOT to Write A Screenplay, Writing Dialogue, Screenwriting 101, AFI's Writing Great Screenplays, Writing Scripts Hollywood Will Love, as well as general fiction writing advice books like the Elements of Fiction Writing series (different volumes for characterization, dialogue, conflict, story, etc.), On Writing, and the like. A lot of these I read in film school... and each had its own strengths and weaknesses.

The most important thing is that - whatever writing resources you use - you use them as a point of reference or jumping off point, and not as a rigid set of rules or guidelines that must absolutely be followed.

[adieu]

Re: Can the pros recommend ANY writing books?

Now that all the rules are gone.

Thanks.

I don't believe the argument was that there are no rules, but that many of supposed "rules" promote blandness and interfere with the engaging telling of your story.

No one argued that structure has no place, but if someone tells you that the first act break must come on page 25, ignore them.

Read all the books you want. Read Aristotle. Take what works for you. Chuck the rest.

No two writers are the same.

Don't be a sheep.

[Derek Haas]

Re: Can the pros recommend ANY writing books?

I don't believe the argument was that there are no rules, but that many of supposed "rules" promote blandness and interfere with the engaging telling of your story.

No one argued that structure has no place, but if someone tells you that the first act break must come on page 25, ignore them.

Read all the books you want. Read Aristotle. Take what works for you. Chuck the rest.

No two writers are the same.

Don't be a sheep.

There is one called THE HABITS OF SUCCESSFUL SCREENWRITERS which I thumbed through that seemed cool because it was basically Q&As with working writers. I can't speak to the rest.

[Screenplay Savant]

Re: Can the pros recommend ANY writing books?

The book I recommend most often is The Art of Dramatic Writing, by Lajos Egri. It's not a screenwriting book, it was actually written for playwrights and was published back in the 40's. But it focuses on the three most important elements of story - theme (which he calls premise), character and conflict.

Once you grasp these elements, writing a screenplay (or play or novel) is much easier. A lot of the screenwriting books don't go into the same depth as Egri does on these core elements of drama.

[one seven spectrum]

Re: Can the pros recommend ANY writing books?

Yeah the HABITS book is great. More so just to see how pro's deal with writer's block etc. Makes you feel normal

[BattleDolphinZero]

Re: Can the pros recommend ANY writing books?

I loved Habit because it was a "how i do" not a "how to."

I loved the 12 page Vogler summary.

That's it and I've read most of them...or tried to.

[Be Not Nobody]

Re: Can the pros recommend ANY writing books?

Not to want to dismiss the OP or his/her question, but I'd actually be more interested to know what scripts the pros recommend reading, and what, if any, it is about them that makes it stand out (in their eyes).

[spacefarer]

Re: Can the pros recommend ANY writing books?

I'm not a pro but I found all the books I've read useful in a way, whether they were related to screenwriting or not, and I always took something from them.


Bashing Field, McKee and Seger is one thing, keeping even a tiny bit of their "wisdom" or knowledge is another. I, for one, do not appreciate the fact that Seger charges north of $2000 for a thorough consultation on a script, which is magnificent bs equivalent only to how contemporary mountebanks and snake-oil sellers rip off their clients, however, I found their books useful.


Mind you, not the Holy Grail of screenwriting or anything, but just a book from which I drew information about screenwriting when I was starting out. And the same goes for Field's 3-act structure paradigm, Vogler's The Hero Myth beats or Snyder's beatsheet, which I also find extremely helpful.


On a parallel level, I'm very curious to know what books the pros read when they were starting out, if any, and if they didn't read any books, I'd be interested to know how they learned the craft in the first place. So curious about this.

Because I went to a good film school but they taught us nada there.

[KitchonaSteve]

Essential books, scripts and how the pros learned their craft

I tried to change the thread title to "Essential books, scripts and how the pros learned their craft" to include related topics others want to know.

Please tell us everything!

Thanks.

For the first 4-5 years, I read everything, all the screenwriting and playwriting books I could find. I also read scripts. I read over 60 scripts to produced movies, and then did an internship as a reader for a small agency. I spent a year there reading about 300 specs. Eighty-five percent of them were dreadful. Fourteen percent were well written inferior ideas, and three of them were pretty-good ideas that were well written. I highly recommend reading a bunch of produced scripts (not shooting drafts) before reading specs in a writers group or on TriggerStreet or Zoetrope.

To answer directly:
BOOKS

• Shakespeare's Game by William Gibson - Hands down the best book on dramatic structure. You need to be familiar with Shakespeare to get the most out of it, but it's great...and also out of print.
• The Hollywood Eye by Jon Boorstin - Not a screenwriting book, but an excellent book on how and why movies work.
• Screenwriting Tricks of the Trade by Bill Froug is very good, and full of useful gems.
• Film Directing Shot by Shot by Katz is good for learning to think in film.
• American Scenarios by Joseph Reed - Interesting book about genre.

SCRIPTS

• Ace Ventura Pet Detective
• Alien
• Body Heat
• Broadcast News
• Bull Durham
• Jerry Maguire
• Lethal Weapon
• Liar Liar
• Notting Hill
• Scott Pilgrim vs. The World
• The Beaver
• The Fisher King
• The Verdict
• Tootsie

[odocoileus]

Re: Can the pros recommend ANY writing books?

The Hollywood Eye by Jon Boorstin - Not a screenwriting book, but an excellent book on how and why movies work.

Great book. Way more useful than Seger or the rest.

[Hamboogul]

Re: Can the pros recommend ANY writing books?

I liked Joel Engel's book where he interviews 12 Oscar winning screenwriters. It came out around 2002, I think. It's so candid that it's almost blush-worthy.

My favorite anecdote is the struggling writer whose script was kinda making rounds in Hollywood but he had to work as a dishwasher at a Chinese restaurant to make ends meet. He gets fired that week because he asked his boss for new gloves to wash dishes with. He comes home and finds a message from Kevin Costner who wants to make his script. A small movie called DANCES WITH WOLVES.

I also like William Goldman's books, ADVENTURES IN SCREEN TRADE and WHICH LIE DID I TELL.

I don't know if any of these qualify as writing books but I enjoy them.