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.

Written by a former story analyst-turned-development executive, this updated edition of "The 1-3-5 Story Structure Made Simple System" guides entertainment industry professionals through the industry standard steps of writing, developing, pitching and selling a screenplay - from the buyer's point of view.

A successful screenplay starts with an understanding of the fundamentals of dramatic story structure. In this practical introduction, Edward J. Fink condenses centuries of writing about dramatic theory into ten concise and readable chapters, providing the tools for building an engaging narrative and turning it into an agent-ready script. Fink devotes chapters to expanding on the six basic elements of drama from Aristotle’s Poetics (plot, character, theme, dialogue, sound, and spectacle), the theory and structure of comedy, as well as the concepts of unity, metaphor, style, universality, and catharsis. Key terms and discussion questions encourage readers to think through the components of compelling stories and put them into practice, and script formatting guidelines ensure your finished product looks polished and professional. Dramatic Story Structure is an essential resource not only for aspiring screenwriters, but also for experienced practitioners in need of a refresher on the building blocks of storytelling.

Eric Edson has developed a new tool for bringing depth and passion to any screenplay - the ""23 Steps All Great Heroes Must Take."" It's an easy to understand paradigm that provides writers and filmmakers the interconnecting, powerful storytelling elements they need. With true insight, a master teacher of screenwriting pinpoints the story structure reasons most new spec scripts don't sell; then uses scores of examples from popular hit movies to present, step by step, his revolutionary Hero Goal Sequences blueprint for writing blockbuster movies.

Write What You Don't Know is a friendly manual for aspiring screenwriters. It encourages you to move beyond your comfort zones in search of stories. We all write what we know - how could we not? Writing what you don't know and doing it in an informed and imaginative way is what makes the process worthwhile. Hoxter draws on his wealth of experience teaching young film students to offer help with every aspect of the writing process, including how we come up with ideas in the first place. Light hearted and full of insight into the roundabout way film students approach their scripts, it also discusses the important issues like the difference between stories and plots and what your characters should be doing in the middle of act two. Write What You Don't Know contains examples and case studies from a wide range of movies, both mainstream and alternative such as The Virgin Spring, Die Hard, The Ipcress File, For The Birds, (500) Days of Summer, Juno, Up In The Air, Knocked Up and Brick.

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!