This ultimate insider's guide reveals the secrets that none dare admit, told by a show biz veteran who's proven that you can sell your script if you can save the cat!

Hundreds of books claim they can teach you how to write the perfect script. Listen up: your script doesnt need to be perfect to sell! It does need to include nine standard story elements. Producer, writer and story analyst Donna Michelle Anderson, best known in the industry as DMA, has been hammering this point home for more than a decade at UCLA Extension Writers Program, film fests, production companies and more, and as the founder and screenwriting instructor of the Movie in a Box one-day filmmaking seminars.With this concise guide, DMA brings you the simplest steps to unifying a theme, character arc and spine, then streamlining those elements into a sellable script. She calls it The 1-3-5 System. Youre going to call it a miracle.

This comprehensive guide is for those who want to launch a career as a television sitcom writer and features detailed inside information on how to write scripts that will get noticed.

Writing Short Films is one of the bestselling university text books on writing short film screenplays. This updated and revised edition includes several new chapters.

Veteran script consultant Jill Chamberlain discovered in her work that an astounding 99 percent of first-time screenwriters don’t know how to tell a story. These writers may know how to format a script, write snappy dialogue, and set a scene. They may have interesting characters and perhaps some clever plot devices. But, invariably, while they may have the kernel of a good idea for a screenplay, they fail to tell a story. What the 99 percent do instead is present a situation. In order to explain the difference, Chamberlain created the Nutshell Technique, a method whereby writers identify eight dynamic, interconnected elements that are required to successfully tell a story. Now, for the first time, Chamberlain presents her unique method in book form with The Nutshell Technique: Crack the Secret of Successful Screenwriting. Using easy-to-follow diagrams (“nutshells”), she thoroughly explains how the Nutshell Technique can make or break a film script. Chamberlain takes readers step-by-step through thirty classic and contemporary movies, showing how such dissimilar screenplays as Casablanca, Chinatown, Pulp Fiction, The Usual Suspects, Little Miss Sunshine, Juno, Silver Linings Playbook, and Argo all have the same system working behind the scenes, and she teaches readers exactly how to apply these principles to their own screenwriting. Learn the Nutshell Technique, and you’ll discover how to turn a mere situation into a truly compelling screenplay story.

Intended to be kept at a screenwriter's fingertips, The Hollywood Standard provides what even the best script software can't: clear, concise instructions and hundreds of examples to take the guesswork out of a multitude of formatting questions that perplex even seasoned screenwriters.Contents include:* When a new scene heading is appropriate and when it isn't* How to format shot headings, dialogue, direction and transitions* How to control pace with formatting* How to make a script page visually inviting to the reader* What to capitalize and why* How to get into and out of a POV shot* How to handle text messages and Zoom meetings* How Hollywood's most innovative screenwriters are pushing the boundaries of format* How format for animation differs from live action formatsSimply put, Riley knows more about script format than anyone in Hollywood and shares it all in this indispensable guide.

When I finished Writing the Pilot a few years back, I figured I'd managed to cram everything I had to say on the subject in that little 90-page package. But that was 2011, and in the years that have passed, a lot has changed about the television business.And when I say "a lot," I mean everything. The way series are bought. The way series are conceived. The way stories are told. The way series are consumed. The kinds of stories that can be told. The limitations on content at every level. The limitations on form at every level. And maybe most important of all: The restriction on who is allowed to sell a series.What's far more confusing about the future is that there are as many changes in the business models for "broadcasters" out there, and no one knows which ones will prevail. And the changes in the delivery model are actually affecting the way our viewers watch our shows - and that in turn is affecting the shows that are being bought and produced. It turns out that we approach a series differently if we're going to binge an entire season in three days instead of taking it week by week. And while you might leap to the conclusion that this only applies to shows produced for Netflix, that's actually not true - the market for syndicated reruns on independent and cable channels is mostly dead, and the afterlife for almost every drama currently produced will be on a streaming service. So in those cases you are writing for two completely different audiences.And this is only the beginning of the forces that are changing the ways stories are told on television these days. Who could have guessed, for example, that a change in the way networks count their viewers would result in a huge acceleration in the pace of storytelling? Or that an overabundance of outlets would lead to a complete liberalization of the kinds of stories that would be allowed to serve as foundation for a series?TV drama storytelling has been changing constantly since the turn of the millennium, but the pace of that change seems to accelerate with every passing television season - except that there really isn't any such thing as a television season anymore. Series are getting bigger and faster - and also slower and smaller. A hit show from even five years ago can look hopelessly dated in this new world. And the only thing that's certain is that everything is going to keep changing. Well - almost everything. Because the one constant in this new television world is the need for great writing. Strong concepts, rich characters, intriguing plots. And more even than great writing: a voice. There's a desperate hunger out there for a fresh, original vision, something that can cut through the clutter of all those hundreds of other shows out there.But in order for that voice to be yours, you've got to understand how TV writing has changed - and what it may be changing to. That's why I've written this book. I believe that almost all of what I said in Writing the Pilot still applies, but right now it feels there's a lot to talk about that wasn't even a fantasy back in 2011. This book is about addressing the changes that have overtaken the TV business - and more importantly, have overtaken TV storytelling. I'm going to be talking about all the changes I listed above, and how they may - how they must - affect your pilot.In many ways, this is the greatest time in the history of our art form to be a TV writer. There are no limits to the stories you can tell or the ways you can tell them. But beneath what appears to be a market in chaos, there are still rules that guide our storytelling - and you can't get into the game before you master them.