The 101 Habits of Highly Successful Screenwriters: Insider Secrets from Hollywood's Top Writers

by Karl Iglesias

You can struggle for years to get a foot in the door with Hollywood producers--or you can take a page from the book that offers proven advice from twenty-one of the industry's best and brightest!

In this tenth anniversary edition, The 101 Habits of Highly Successful Screenwriters, 2nd Edition peers into the lives and workspaces of screenwriting greats--including Terry Rossio (the Pirates of the Caribbean franchise), Aline Brosh McKenna (Morning Glory), Bill Marsilii (Deja Vu), Derek Haas and Michael Brandt (Wanted), and Tony Gilroy (the Bourne franchise).

You will learn best practices to fire up your writing process and your career, such as:
Be Comfortable with Solitude
Commit to a Career, Not Just One Screenplay
Be Aware of Your Muse's Favorite Activities
Write Terrible First Drafts
Don't Work for Free
Write No Matter What
This indispensable handbook will help you hone your craft by living, breathing, and scripting the life you want!

Genres: Writing, Nonfiction, Film, Reference, Ebooks, Media Tie In, Self Help

272 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2001

Reviews

[Jenny Orelle · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book will make you want to become a novelist. ( ;

(And if you don’t already have sympathy for screenwriters try reading Neil Gaiman’s “The Gold Fish Pond” or David Morrell’s “The Successful Novelist.”)

The book points out that there’s a greater chance of winning the lottery than selling a screenplay, but—if you have drive and talent—following the honest and generous advice in this book can only stack the odds in your favor.

I am not a screenwriter (even though I won five dollars on a scratch and win ticket once)—but want to learn all I can from all kinds of writers and all kinds of books.

It’s well organized by topic and can be re-read in doses as needed. It claims to not be a writing craft book—but it’s that and more. Anyone with a story to tell should find value in this book. Or at least be inspired.

One of my favorite quotes is from the chapter on rewriting:

“An art teacher once taught me to hold a painting up to a mirror to see its hidden flaws. But there is no equivalent to that in writing. If you hold up your script to a mirror, it’s just backwards! The only way to get that perspective is time away from the material. So the trick in rewriting is to get away from it for as long as you can.” — Steven DeSouza

[David · Rating 4 out of 5]

While most of the advice the book offers you may have heard / read about / or experienced.

It's a nice summary of the vary opinions and habits that are basic pillars of the writing lifestyle.

Great for a reality check and refuel.

[nananatte · Rating 5 out of 5]

it's like sitting among a big group of veteran screenwriters and they share their experiences to all kinds of topics we are curious about...

great books, full of pain and wisdom

[Samantha · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book, though for screenwriters, applies to all types of writers, and was very insightful. Topics such as writer's block and finding inspiration were talked about and the different screenwriters discussed how they overcome such things. It was a helpful read and interesting to hear about the lives of screenwriters and the Hollywood scene.

[Nitin Sharma · Rating 5 out of 5]

Habit 102: read about screenwriters that came before you

Reading too many how to books will only create a block. You will never be able to read all of them. Better to write and read books on experiences of writer. And this is one of the best ones.

[Tracy · Rating 1 out of 5]

A typical collection of advice from various writers that constantly contradict one another. Further proof that every writer needs to find their own path to productivity and success.

[Dana Gricken · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great advice from successful screenwriters. They tell you everything about the craft, their backstory, tips, etc. A must-read for any aspiring screenwriter.

[Zora · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting, and sort of like reading the Paris Review interviews of fiction writers. Nothing new, but if you're a new writer, a serious introduction to professionalism:

Be creative and original
Be a natural storyteller (or learn to be one if you aren't a natural)
Be comfortable with solitude
Expect to have to sacrifice in life much to succeed
Have a driving reason to write
believe in yourself/work through the doubts and beginner stages
Read a LOT -- top examples and craft books
Observe the world well
Outline each script at some point
Have good production habits goals/quotas/schedule/deadlines.
Finish all scripts you start
Understand structure/plot (raising stakes, main character growth, themes that speak to people)
Be passionate about movies and the craft
Be realistic about the business
Be collaborative and open to criticism
Never burn a bridge, grow a thick skin, never work for free, and never give up
Take care of your body, mental health and family/friendships (though how one does this when working one's ass off and sacrificing a whole lot isn't quite clear.)

I read a review elsewhere about how it sneers at new writers, but it doesn't. It sneers a bit at the unserious writer. Pros have taken the time to try and help you here and the only adult response is "thank you very much for your time." Defensiveness about a book reveals you don't have the thick skin needed to be any kind of writer (not yet, maybe not ever.)

Kudos that it's not all male screenwriters. They're the ones who (still! in 2023!) make the vast majority of the money, but it's not because a penis is necessary to writing a good screenplay. Unless people like Iglesias bother to ask women their experiences, we'll lose a lot of useful information.

[Nora · Rating 3 out of 5]

Needed some inspiration to get back to writing every day. Worked.

[Robert Longoria · Rating 3 out of 5]

At the end of Pixar’s Ratatouille, food critic Anton Ego surmises: “Not everyone can become a great artist; but a great artist can come from anywhere.” That maxim certainly holds true for the few writers that are able to make a full-time living within the world of Hollywood screenwriting.

Karl Iglesias’s “The 101 Habits of Highly Successful Screenwriters: Insider Secrets from Hollywood’s Top Writers” provides the ammunition aspiring screenwriters need to continue living their double lives—working by day, writing by night—to hopefully break into the showbiz of spinning stories for the big screen. The book modestly aims at reenergizing would-be screenwriters with pieces of advice on habits to develop creative workflow, inspire writing, and keep dreams alive by sharing anecdotes from a panel of established names including Tony Gilroy (writer of the Bourne series), Akiva Goldman (writer of I Am Legend, Cinderella Man, A Beautiful Mind), Aline Brosh McKenna (Morning Glory, 27 Dresses, The Devil Wears Prada) and several other screenwriting successes.

As an aspiring screenwriter and someone who loves cinema, the book provides an accessible perspective on how to write for the screen by reading writing habits professionals use. Some of the habits are common sense that the book’s intended audience may already enacting anyway (i.e. Be A Voracious Reader, Research, Have a Favorite Writing Space). However, the panel’s advice can serve as a boost of self-esteem as an example of where other writers started out, their trials and tribulations, and eventual success due to perseverance and determination.

What the book lacks in concrete, actionable steps for developing a screenplay it makes up for in providing a broad overview of making the leap from aspiring to professional screenwriting. I recommend this to any beginning screenwriter or layperson that wants to determine whether they want to write for screenplays or want to write for the benefits associated with having written screenplays: There is no easy path to screenwriting. There is no one path to success that has been proven. One has to create their own path. Ultimately, through the conflicting approaches to habits and differing opinions provided by the panel, readers and prospective screenwriters need to make the determination based on the advice imparted by the “experts.”

“The 101 Habits of Highly Successful Screenwriters” is squarely aimed to aspiring screenwriters who want to establish habits. In a nutshell: Research, Outline, Write, Rewrite, and Accept Failure. Common sense advice and generalities are good to keep in mind when starting out but if you have been developing your own writing habits for a while, my advice is to skip the book and focus on writing your screenplays.

[Alyssa · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'm not sure quite how to feel. For the most part, this was a highly interesting read, at least. Most of the time it sounds like the screenwriters contributing are trying to give advice to hopefuls, and lay out some realism as well.

But man, did it turn into a dick measuring contest about how bad their life was, no, HAS TO BE, in order to 'make it'. Seriously. I'm going to give the contributors the benefit of the doubt that they weren't meant to come off ghat way. But the way their quotes were arranged together basically insighted a big "f*** you" from me.

Maybe that's part of the bit? Either you get angry and you are fueled by it or you get weeded out and quit. I don't know.

Again, for the most part pretty good, but the ending was a bit souring and would make anyone go "who the hell wants to be like any of these guys? I just wanna effing write. If I make it, god help me from turning into a prick".

[CNL · Rating 2 out of 5]

i would give this a 2.5 if that was an option. i think you are really trying to break into “the biz” this would be a good book for you, and i was looking for help in regards to writing a screenplay for fun. there were some helpful tips about writing in general, but it felt like things i have also read in books like the artist’s way. in closing, if you are always creating, some of your work is bound to be good and will likely get better with practice

[John Thibault · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very nice...

This reminds me of a book I read a long time ago, Writers on Writing. But this one is different because I think you captured the essence of so many aspects of screen writing and the filmmaking process that it was great to hear it from such a diverse group of screenwriters. Congrats! Very nice interviewing and integration.

[KZ · Rating 3 out of 5]

Karl’s other book is better in my opinion. But some useful info can be found in this advice guide. The best piece of advice here for me was the idea that adults are just 12 year olds in grown-up’s bodies—if you can write something that has that childlike spark and marvel to it, then it’ll have come from the heart and it’ll be good.

[Luke Bacich · Rating 3 out of 5]

I believe in the master and apprentice model for learning most things. Taking the gem ideas from so many different masters was valuable. I found part 2 on creativity and part 3 on discipline the most useful.

[Elliot · Rating 1 out of 5]

A tame and uninteresting work that is less about giving advice than it is about people name dropping

[Jinling · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a great book to keep on the shelf to remind me of common sense in this industry.

[Saravana Kumar · Rating 4 out of 5]

It's a good one. Lots of practical ideas you can get from this book.

[Steven Belanger · Rating 5 out of 5]

Though the title refers to screenwriters (which I am not...yet), this book is a very helpful nugget for any kind of writer at all. I write short stories and novels, but this book did a lot for me--specifically, it made me feel that my various issues with this business were not only justifiable, but ordinary. It also showed that the 14 writers listed above (some more helpful for me than others) had been through somewhat the same thing, and they all got through it simply by...writing. They got through the rejections and sadness and madness and insecurity and everything else simply by writing something else. Period.

The most helpful tidbits:

--Just keep writing. If you do it enough, you'll be good enough to sell some (or all) of it. The Theory of 10,000 hours, apparently, though the book never calls it that.

--Have more than one project going on. If you get stuck on one, you have something else to fall back on.

This is most helpful to me because

a) I have a ton of stories going on, plus a few Novels in Progress
b) If I get a rejection of some kind from the novel end of things, for example, the sadness and madness that will come with that won't stop me from working on one of my stories.
c) And if I get a rejection for a story, for example, I have one of my novels to go back to.
d) (Don't ask me what I can do if I get a rejection in the same day in both fields. Yes, that could actually happen, though so far it never has. I'll work on one of my blogs, essays, or something else.)
e) The bottom line is: I can write every day, even if something happens to depress and regress me.

--Write every day. This is a no-brainer, and I've seen it a million times, but this book showed me HOW I could write every day. Someone telling you to do something is not helpful. Someone showing you HOW to do that thing is much more productive.

--Also, getting back into the world you've created after totally stepping away from it for any time at all is much more difficult that you may think. Because even less than 24 hours is a long time. You're away from the sights, smells, traits, reality and everything else, and stepping back into it is not as easy as, say, just walking through a mirror and entering that world.

Though that's a nice little mental image to help me to do so, now that I'm thinking about it.

--Write because you like to write. Another no-brainer, but it'll help you to work every day even when rejection happens. An agent for my novel and an editor for a story both rejected me today? Well, instead of getting depressed and hopeless, I'll write anyway simply because I want to! This takes whatever negativity comes with the business out of the equation. And, believe me, there's a lot of it! Part of that is the nature of the beast: With a full-time career, it takes me 6 months to a year to write one novel. And that's minimum.

--Also, if you're writing something else, you have something to work on when you finish something. There is a bit of a post-partum thing, especially with novels. When I finished any of my great many drafts of one of my past WIPs, there was a very serious letdown and sadness, just because I was done. You've breathed and thought and seen every single thing in this work for years, and now suddenly it's over. Very tough sometimes.

--The more you work on, the more you can send out there. That's how you make contacts (Chuck Thompson, for example, would occasionally call Stephen King and ask him if he'd finished anything new. This was before King sold Carrie.) and that's how you get known, even if your work isn't selling. Of course, your work can't be crap, because then that's what you'll be known for.

There are many more things, and notice I haven't written anything yet about screenwriting. There is a section on that, so feel free to skip that if you're not that kind of writer. But writing is writing, and this book shows that there's just one thing that writers have to do to be writers.

Write.

[Tristan · Rating 2 out of 5]

Maybe it’s me, but a book about successful screenwriters should not begin with statements about how they achieved their *first* success, as almost all of them candidly admit that it was down to dumb luck, being in the right place at the right time. What is far more important in a study of success is how these screenwriters *maintained* their success in their second, third project, etc. because then success was *expected* of them and the lucky break was left far behind. It’s the maintaining and delivering on expectations that demonstrates success, not the first occurrence of someone taking a bet on an unknown guy or gal who seems to have a spark of something. The repetitive nature of these interview quotes also contributed to me losing interest. It’s not a bad book, but there’s more to read out there.

DNF at 23%

[Sammy · Rating 4 out of 5]

A great little book. It's not particularly original, in fact a lot of advice may seem like common sense. But what makes this book a handy guide is that it's designed for the enthusiastic amateur preparing to be professional. It's not just full of boring lists of agents to write to, but nor is it a guide on HOW to write. Instead, the book assumes that you are actively writing and ready to commit to your writing full time. Using often contradictory statements from 20 or so regularly employed Hollywood screenwriters, the book discusses various strategies for writing, honing your craft, and ultimately forging ahead with a career.

This is not a writing manual, and obviously it's focusing on the niche market of mainstream Hollywood screenwriting. If you only want to write quirky short films for festivals, you should be aware of that. Yet, most of the information still applies to any would-be professional, and I appreciate the fact that the book doesn't take one direct approach. Some writers work best in the morning, others at night. Some writers believe in hacking through a first draft and writing 9-to-5, others write in tiny segments when they feel it. Your style is your style; this book is merely another weapon in your arsenal.

[Adam · Rating 3 out of 5]

The premise is interesting, and the author sells it well: a handful of Hollywood's top screenwriters expound on various topics, shedding light on what it's like to be in The Biz (does anyone actually call it that?). It's supposed to be a Master's class in screenwriting, all the distilled wisdom, for the price of one book.

Except most of the advice can be found almost anywhere.

When they got into things like "Write a lot" and "Make time for writing" and "Sometimes you have to step away from the work to get perspective," I kind of felt like I wasn't getting my money's worth. I DID get some insight into how the industry works (including the discouraging advice that you pretty much HAVE to live in L.A. if you want to build a screenwriting career) and enjoyed some of the anecdotes from some of the writers. And some of them are brutally frank about how frustrating a business it is. Overall, the book has more value as a supplement or curiosity on the bookshelf than as a one-stop-shopping for screenwriting advice.

[MisterFweem · Rating 3 out of 5]

Yeah, three stars.

I'm not a big fan of books on how to write -- but that comes from my habits of being an ur-writer, one who doesn't like to plan things out and one who just liked to see where a story goes, even if it goes into a ditch or dead end.

In reading the book you won't find anything really earth-shattering, as the tips he offers (or his expert screenwriters offer) are standard fare for any writer in any kind of genre, though it is interesting to get a glimpse into the rigidity of screenwriting and the necessity of living in LA or its environs in order to succeed in the business.

[Glenn Mitchell · Rating 5 out of 5]

"The 101 Habits of Highly Successful Screenwriters" is packed with useful advice for screenwriters. Especially novice screenwriters, like myself. The advice is both practical and candid. It has the feel of a roundtable at a conference for screenwriters.

This is one of the first Kindle e-books that I marked with electronic highlights and bookmarks. With a paper book, the cover would get warped from so many dog-eared pages. There were just so many quotes I want to be able to quickly recall.

Karl Iglesias did an excellent job of selecting authors and editing their comments.

I believe nearly every novice screenwriter will want a copy of this book on their bookshelf.

[dAVE · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this book. It actually gives you a perspective from people who have started from nothing and written and directed major feature films. However, if you are looking for specifics on how to be a screenwriter, pick up a different book. The major theme I took out of this book was that there are people out there who actually have talent, are not born into the industry, and still somehow managed to find success. The book follows a question-answer interview style which may turn some people off, but is extremely efficient for the purpose of the book.

[CC · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was probably more like 2.5 -- it's just plain common sense, and general enough to be meaningless.

I wasn't expecting much, really. The headings were titled: "Make Time to Write." And, "Be Creative and Original."

So, um, yeah. All the advice and explanations from working screenwriters (Tony Gilroy, Aline Brosh McKenna, Scott Rosenberg, Derek Haas...) were, unfortunately, equally bland and generic. Like, "Yeah, I make time to write everyday." And, "Yeah, I try to be as original as I can."

Gee. You don't say? Never thought of that!

So, whatever...

[Dee Renee Chesnut · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book was free when I downloaded it to my Nook library from BN.com.

This is not a how-to book for writing in a screenplay format for it assumes the writer has learned that from somewhere else. The 101 Habits may seem like common sense; but, we all know how rare common sense can be. Perhaps some of the best advice is write daily in order to work on your craft, and have three completed scripts that have been honed by several rewrites in order to show your best work to an agent.

I recommend this book to all writers for much of the advice is good for any genre.

[Ryan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Loved this book. There aren't any comprable books for composers, screenwriting is about as similar a craft as you can find. Although the majority of these habits are ones I already practice it's still always great to hear it again or get some different perspectives. I cannot recommend this highly enough for anyone interested in pursuing a career as a composer, writer, or any other field that blends art and commerce.

[Reed · Rating 4 out of 5]

It has practical information from several different screenwriters. Instead of one "this is how to do it" view, it contains several "this is what I've done" views, giving more perspectives on areas such as the writing process, selling the script, and juggling family and work. It is an encouraging book, as well.

[Alec · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was a great book with a lot of good advice. I love that the people that Iglesias talks to are alive today and you can see there films now. Each screenwriter brought there own unique experience and at times could disagree with the other screenwriters; however, tho book allows you to pick the writer's advice who best helps you.