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Your First Screenplay: The Beginner's Guide To Movie Writing
If you've ever wanted to write a movie...YOU NEED THIS BOOK!
Packed with tips & techniques for first-time and seasoned screenwriters. Works for any genre!
You’ll
• How to write a professional screenplay from beginning to end
• Finding ideas and how to get a great one
• The tools you’ll need before you start writing
• How to get your ideas out of your head and onto the page
• How to develop realistic, engaging characters
• Crafting later drafts that take your screenplay from good to great
• Solutions to problems including writer’s block, self-confidence,
writing routines, and feedback
And much more!
Kickoff your screenwriting journey with this easy-to-follow method of writing YOUR FIRST SCREENPLAY.
Packed with tips & techniques for first-time and seasoned screenwriters. Works for any genre!
You’ll
• How to write a professional screenplay from beginning to end
• Finding ideas and how to get a great one
• The tools you’ll need before you start writing
• How to get your ideas out of your head and onto the page
• How to develop realistic, engaging characters
• Crafting later drafts that take your screenplay from good to great
• Solutions to problems including writer’s block, self-confidence,
writing routines, and feedback
And much more!
Kickoff your screenwriting journey with this easy-to-follow method of writing YOUR FIRST SCREENPLAY.
187 pages, Kindle Edition
Published October 14, 2022
22 people are currently reading
11 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
November 20, 2022
This writing guide focuses on writing movie scripts but I found many of the ideas applicable to other sort of stories as well. The book talks about story ideas, plotting, timelines, pacing, knowing your characters, the story arcs, and dialogue, and gives the reader some pointers about where to find script ideas, how to organize the writing process, get over the writer's block and get into a writing routine, as well as some things the author thinks you should never do. (Granted, I have enjoyed several movies that included some of the author's no-no's.)
The author's advice on how to get to a finished story is not to edit the first draft, just write until you're finished. Not sure this would work for me, I like to edit as edit-worthy things occur to me, but he's right that too much perfectionism at the first draft stage could discourage a writer from finishing anything. He likes to handwrite drafts and notes in a notebook but if I did that I would never finish anything since I frequently can't read what I wrote by hand. It might be a good idea to take some time off before starting the editing process , so you come at it with fresh eyes. The author has suggestions about what things to look at for the second, third, fourth, and fifth draft.
The book also gives you information on how to format your screenplay to make it look professional instead of an amateur effort and discusses ways of dealing with feedback from people who read your script and copyrighting it. There's a checklist for character development and a list of famous screenplays you might want to research.
For the most part the book is is written in an engaging, easily readable style although I found some of the paragraphs to be rather large walls of text and would have preferred to break them in smaller chunks. There are some graphs and pictures that I couldn't read on the small screen of my phone app without taking a screenshot and enlarging it, and some were blurry even so.
I disagreed with this: "Use spell check. Every program has it.... There's no algorithm that can interpret something. Either words are spelled correctly or not." Um, have you ever used a spell checker? There are plenty of creative ways to misspell words that won't get highlighted by a spell checking program because they misinterpreted what you wanted to say and your error also happens to be a real, correctly spelled world.
I received a free copy of this book via Booksprout and am voluntarily leaving a review.
The author's advice on how to get to a finished story is not to edit the first draft, just write until you're finished. Not sure this would work for me, I like to edit as edit-worthy things occur to me, but he's right that too much perfectionism at the first draft stage could discourage a writer from finishing anything. He likes to handwrite drafts and notes in a notebook but if I did that I would never finish anything since I frequently can't read what I wrote by hand. It might be a good idea to take some time off before starting the editing process , so you come at it with fresh eyes. The author has suggestions about what things to look at for the second, third, fourth, and fifth draft.
The book also gives you information on how to format your screenplay to make it look professional instead of an amateur effort and discusses ways of dealing with feedback from people who read your script and copyrighting it. There's a checklist for character development and a list of famous screenplays you might want to research.
For the most part the book is is written in an engaging, easily readable style although I found some of the paragraphs to be rather large walls of text and would have preferred to break them in smaller chunks. There are some graphs and pictures that I couldn't read on the small screen of my phone app without taking a screenshot and enlarging it, and some were blurry even so.
I disagreed with this: "Use spell check. Every program has it.... There's no algorithm that can interpret something. Either words are spelled correctly or not." Um, have you ever used a spell checker? There are plenty of creative ways to misspell words that won't get highlighted by a spell checking program because they misinterpreted what you wanted to say and your error also happens to be a real, correctly spelled world.
I received a free copy of this book via Booksprout and am voluntarily leaving a review.
November 15, 2022
This guide is ideal for first-time screenplay writers. The book is written like a recipe: the ingredients at the beginning (resources for readers to get together before writing) followed by the method (techniques on how to get writing and the steps to take to write a screenplay). Writing techniques are the same for any form of writing, whether it be a novel or a screenplay. Techniques include being in a quiet place, observing natural interaction between people, and 'writing what you know'.
The book is structured really well so readers can refer back to specific sections with ease, especially because the method is in order: starting with an idea, writing a logline, creating characters, writing dialogue. Then the book explains the structure of a screenplay, including stating exactly what the terms mean and when they are used. Finally, there are tips on how to work on drafts and building a routine to write, then requesting feedback.
I received a review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.
The book is structured really well so readers can refer back to specific sections with ease, especially because the method is in order: starting with an idea, writing a logline, creating characters, writing dialogue. Then the book explains the structure of a screenplay, including stating exactly what the terms mean and when they are used. Finally, there are tips on how to work on drafts and building a routine to write, then requesting feedback.
I received a review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews