Prewriting Your Screenplay: A Step-by-Step Guide to Generating Stories

by Michael Tabb

Prewriting Your Screenplay cements all the bricks of a story’s foundations together and forms a single, organic story-growing technique, starting with a blank slate. It shows writers how to design each element so that they perfectly interlock together like pieces of a puzzle, creating a stronger story foundation that does not leave gaps and holes for readers to find. This construction process is performed one piece at a time, one character at a time, building and incorporating each element into the whole.

The book provides a clear-cut set of lessons that teaches how to construct that story base around concepts as individual as the writer’s personal opinions, helping to foster an individual writer’s voice. It also features end-of-chapter exercises that offer step-by-step guidance in applying each lesson, providing screenwriters with a concrete approach to building a strong foundation for a screenplay. This is the quintessential book for all writers taking their first steps towards developing a screenplay from nothing, getting them over that first monumental hump, resulting in a well-formulated story concept that is cohesive and professional.

Genres: Writing

256 pages, Kindle Edition

Published July 16, 2018

Reviews

[A.K. Frailey · Rating 5 out of 5]

I found Michael Tabb's book on prewriting to be very helpful since it offered not only a logical and sequential approach to writing a screenplay, but everything he said could be used by any writer in any genre. He starts with the basics and builds up to actual structural points, which writers can use to outline (or at least think through) their original story. He also gives a huge number of real (movie) world examples that the reader/writer can check out to clarify the main points. I found the movie examples very helpful to visualize exactly what I need to do to create solid, visual, and attractive written work.

[Laura Kirk · Rating 5 out of 5]

This excellent guide would save much time and address the call for hearing the individual voice in creative work.

[Doj.M · Rating 5 out of 5]

I want read this book