Screenwriting for Neurotics is a quirky and accessible handbook for beginning screenwriters. Whether you are a student in a screenwriting class or just someone who wants to try their hand at writing for film or television, this handy guidebook makes the entire process simple and unintimidating. Scott Winfield Sublett, a veteran screenwriter and screenwriting teacher, walks you step by step from start to finish and helps you navigate potential and unforeseen difficulties along the way, offering handy tips and suggestions to keep you from becoming blocked or stalled. Rather than throwing you into the writing process headfirst, Sublett guides you through the various decisions you need to make—about plot, character, structure, conflict—in the order you need to make them. He explains in straightforward terms the terminology and jargon, the theory and industry standards, and dispels common myths about screenwriting that can discourage or hold back a beginning writer. Balancing theory and practice and offering valuable and insightful examples from recognizable and well-known classic and contemporary films, ranging from Casablanca to A Christmas Story to Clerks, Sublett provides the new writer with the necessary tools to successfully write a feature-length screenplay and offers a roadmap of where to go next. With an emphasis on helping a writer not just to begin, but also to finish a script, Screenwriting for Neurotics is the screenwriting book to help you actually write one.

In The Tools of screenwriting, the authors illuminate the essential elements of cinematic storytelling. These elements are guideposts for the aspiring screenwriter, and they can be used in different ways to accomplish a variety of ends. Questions of dramatic structure, plot, dialogue, character development, setting, imagery, and other crucial topics are discussed as they apply to the special art of filmmaking.

THE 21ST-CENTURY SCREENPLAY is the long-awaited, much-expanded successor to the author's internationally acclaimed SCRIPTWRITING UPDATED. Many books in one, it offers a comprehensive, highly practical manual of screenwriting from the classic to the avant-garde, from The African Queen and Tootsie, to 21 Grams, Pulp Fiction, Memento and Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind. Whether you want to write short films, features, adaptations, genre films, ensemble films, blockbusters or art house movies, this book takes you all the way from choosing the brilliant idea to plotting, writing and rewriting. Featuring a range of insider survival tips on time-effective writing, creativity under pressure and rising to the challenge of international competition, THE 21ST-CENTURY SCREENPLAY is essential reading for newcomer and veteran alike. 'A brilliant book. Linda Aronson is one of the great and important voices on screenwriting.' - Dr Linda Seger, author of Making a Good Script Great. 'A VERY WONDERFUL book. I love the strategies for plumbing the unconscious story mind. There's no other book that gives such an in-depth analysis of the bone structure for all these various kinds of narratives.' - Robin Swicord, Little Women, The Jane Austen Book Club, Memoirs of a Geisha.

Introduction / by Barbara Morgan -- 1. Inspiration. A conversation with Randall Wallace -- 2. Story. What makes a great story : a conversation with Bill Wittliff ; Steven Zaillian on where the story originates ; Peter Hedges on crafting story ; Lawrence Kasdan on story and theme -- 3. Process. A conversation with John Lee Hancock ; Sacha Gervasi on getting started ; The basics with Nicholas Kazan ; Advice from Bill Wittliff ; Anne Rapp's writing routine ; Caroline Thompson's writing process ; Lawrence Kasdan on the challenges of writing -- 4. Structure. Structure and format : a conversation with Frank Pierson, Whit Stillman, Robin Swicord, and Nicholas Kazan ; Caroline Thompson on structure ; Lawrence Kasdan on the rules of script formatting ; Visual storytelling : a conversation with John August, John Lee Hancock, and Randall Wallace -- 5. Character and dialogue. Building characters and mapping their journeys : a conversation with Lawrence Kasdan and Anne Rapp ; Nicholas Kazan on writing characters ; Crafting characters : a conversation with Lawrence Kasdan ; Dialogue and finding the voice : a conversation with John August and John Lee Hancock -- 6. Rewritng. Writer's block : a conversation with Bud Shrake and Bill Wittliff ; Bill Wittliff on when to let something go ; Steven Zaillian on defining scenes : what to keep in, what to leave out ; Anne Rapp on keeping writing fresh ; Nicholas Kazan's rewriting process ; On rewriting : a conversation with Daniel Petrie Jr., Peter Hedges, and Sacha Gervasi ; Lawrence Kasdan on how to know when you're done -- 7. Collaboration. A conversation with Steven Zaillian ; Peter Hedges on collaborating ; Lawrence Kasdan on writing with a partner ; Randall Wallace on working with other writers -- 8. Go forth.

Providing examples from well-known movies, Field explains the structural and stylistic elements as well as writing techniques basic to the creation of a successful film script.

You've just boarded a plane. You've loaded your phone with your favorite podcasts, but before you can pop in your earbuds, disaster strikes: The guy in the next seat starts telling you all about something crazy that happened to him--in great detail. This is the unwelcome storyteller, trying to convince a reluctant audience to care about his story. We all hate that guy, right? But when you tell a story (any kind of story: a novel, a memoir, a screenplay, a stage play, a comic, or even a cover letter), you become the unwelcome storyteller. So how can you write a story that audiences will embrace? The answer is simple: Remember what it feels like to be that jaded audience. Tell the story that would win you over, even if you didn't want to hear it. The Secrets of Story provides comprehensive, audience-focused strategies for becoming a master storyteller. Armed with the Ultimate Story Checklist, you can improve every aspect of your fiction writing with incisive questions like these: • Concept: Is the one-sentence description of your story uniquely appealing? • Character: Can your audience identify with your hero? • Structure and Plot: Is your story ruled by human nature? • Scene Work: Does each scene advance the plot and reveal character through emotional reactions? • Dialogue: Is your characters' dialogue infused with distinct personality traits and speech patterns based on their lives and backgrounds? • Tone: Are you subtly setting, resetting, and upsetting expectations? • Theme: Are you using multiple ironies throughout the story to create meaning? To succeed in the world of fiction and film, you have to work on every aspect of your craft and satisfy your audience. Do both--and so much more--with The Secrets of Story.

John Irving's memoir begins with his account of the distinguished career and medical writings of the novelist's grandfather Dr. Frederick C. Irving, a renowned obstetrician and gynecologist, and includes Mr. Irving's incisive history of abortion politics in the United States. But My Movie Business focuses primarily on the thirteen years John Irving spent adapting his novel The Cider House Rules for the screen--for four different directors. Mr. Irving also writes about the failed effort to make his first novel, Setting Free the Bears, into a movie; about two of the films that were made from his novels (but not from his screenplays), The World According to Garp and The Hotel New Hampshire; about his slow progress at shepherding his screenplay of A Son of the Circus into production. Not least, and in addition to its qualities as a memoir--anecdotal, comic, affectionate, and candid--My Movie Business is an insightful essay on the essential differences between writing a novel and writing a screenplay. The photographs in My Movie Business were taken by Stephen Vaughan, the still photographer on the set of The Cider House Rules--a Miramax production directed by Lasse Hallström, with Michael Caine in the role of Dr. Larch. Concurrently with the November 1999 release of the film, Talk Miramax Books will publish John Irving's screenplay.