Secrets of Film Writing

by Tom Lazarus

Most books about screenplays instruct on three-act structure, character arcs, and how to format a script. But you already know all that.

Secrets of Film Writing reveals a working writer's secrets-the tips, short cuts, tricks, and insider advice that will get your story down on paper, maximize your idea, and seduce your readers. Do you know why actors pick scripts out of a stack? Why montage sequences don't work? Why the traditional three-act structure is obsolete? Lazarus lifts the veil with dozens of secrets like these.

Lazarus's insights and techniques will smooth and improve any screenwriter's process and will make any script more readable and ultimately more salable. Secrets of Film Writing takes you behind the scenes of feature and television writing and demystifies, once and for all, the Hollywood System.

Genres: Writing, Film, Nonfiction

256 pages, Paperback

First published June 2, 2001

Reviews

[Erick Perez Rosas]

Suddenly remembered that I read this book for one of my classes for Screenwriting. Horrible advice really. He says there is a correct and wrong way to write. Which is wrong, there is no one correct way to write well and no one incorrect way to write. One of his secrets is getting a good logline. ??? I mean, sure it will help you sell a script, not write a good one. Also one of his advice is not to write a scene with vomiting in it, and if you do you'll never sell it and you'll rot in hell (pg. 152). Again, ???. In Fabric, The Exorcist, Monty Python's The Meaning of Life, for gods sake Knives Out is dependent on a character who cannot lie to the point they vomit if they do. Everything Tom hates, montage, for example, is bad writing.

If you want to start screenwriting, avoid this book at all costs.

[Will Baker]

Best book on script-writing ever written by a porn writer.

It actually is pretty good and worth, at least, a checkout from your local library.

[Cindy Koch-Krol]

One of the most succinct books on Screen writing I've ever read. It leads by example. It's a quick read and gives lots of practical advice from an insider. I'm keeping this book on my shelf, because of the last line. I'm going to read it again and again.

Thank you Mr. Lazarus, I wish I could take your class!

[Golda]

Most books on writing tend to be very boring and dry or dense and technical but this one is fun and conversational and I learned a lot.