Garth Laidlaw
asked
Jennifer M. Baldwin:
I read a review you posted on Steven Pressfield's book, and you mentioned you read a ton of books on screenwriting - curious to hear what were some of the ones that helped you the most in your writing?
Jennifer M. Baldwin
Hi Garth! Thank you for the question! The first screenwriting book I ever read was Syd Field's Screenplay: The Foundations of Screenwriting. It was something I happened to find in a Borders bookstore, and it had blurbs on the back from Steven Bocho and James L. Brooks, so I figured it would be worth checking out. Apparently, it was (for better and worse) some kind of Hollywood screenwriting "classic." It's standard three-act stuff; formulaic, but good for understanding the basics of how Hollywood thinks of story (it was the Save the Cat! of its day).
Then in my first screenwriting class, we were assigned a book called Writing the Character-Centered Screenplay by Andrew Horton. This is a book I would highly recommend because it moves away from the standard Inciting Incident-Rising Action-Climax-Falling Action-Resolution formula of plotting and explores the way characters impact narrative. Instead of focusing on the plot points of a screenplay, it asks the writer to start with characters. It's very big on experimentation and non-Hollywood ways of telling stories.
Similarly, The Art of Dramatic Writing by Lajos Egri asks the playwright (or screenwriter) to start with character and create a narrative that is particularly suited to the main character (so that he/she can confront deep-seated fears/desires). It focuses a lot on psychological motivation so that instead of things happening to characters and then they react (in a very action-driven way), the motives of the characters drive the story and determine what happens next (creating a more interior-driver story). It's a book for playwrights, but it has a lot of interesting stuff for the screenwriter too.
Finally, the big mother of all screenwriting books is Story by Robert McKee. He takes a lot of the Lajos Egri stuff, some of the Syd Field stuff, and then a good chunk of his own original stuff and mixes everything into a bona fide storytelling bible. It's a book I return to often just to troubleshoot my stories or get ideas.
A non-screenwriting book that is also great for plotting and structure is James Scott Bell's Plot and Structure. Bell also has a lot of advice for other aspects of the writing process, such as gathering ideas, plotting versus pantsing, and revision.
These are the books on my shelf that I go back to (well, except for Syd Field's book; it's maybe worth reading once, but it's not very deep or helpful once you've moved beyond basic three-act structure).
I also studied screenwriting in college, so I had the experience and advice of professors and professional screenwriters, but alas, there are no books I can recommend to replicate that kind of education.
I hope this helps! Let me know if you have any other questions about screenwriting, pitching stories, Hollywood-ish stuff, or just writing questions in general. Cheers!
Then in my first screenwriting class, we were assigned a book called Writing the Character-Centered Screenplay by Andrew Horton. This is a book I would highly recommend because it moves away from the standard Inciting Incident-Rising Action-Climax-Falling Action-Resolution formula of plotting and explores the way characters impact narrative. Instead of focusing on the plot points of a screenplay, it asks the writer to start with characters. It's very big on experimentation and non-Hollywood ways of telling stories.
Similarly, The Art of Dramatic Writing by Lajos Egri asks the playwright (or screenwriter) to start with character and create a narrative that is particularly suited to the main character (so that he/she can confront deep-seated fears/desires). It focuses a lot on psychological motivation so that instead of things happening to characters and then they react (in a very action-driven way), the motives of the characters drive the story and determine what happens next (creating a more interior-driver story). It's a book for playwrights, but it has a lot of interesting stuff for the screenwriter too.
Finally, the big mother of all screenwriting books is Story by Robert McKee. He takes a lot of the Lajos Egri stuff, some of the Syd Field stuff, and then a good chunk of his own original stuff and mixes everything into a bona fide storytelling bible. It's a book I return to often just to troubleshoot my stories or get ideas.
A non-screenwriting book that is also great for plotting and structure is James Scott Bell's Plot and Structure. Bell also has a lot of advice for other aspects of the writing process, such as gathering ideas, plotting versus pantsing, and revision.
These are the books on my shelf that I go back to (well, except for Syd Field's book; it's maybe worth reading once, but it's not very deep or helpful once you've moved beyond basic three-act structure).
I also studied screenwriting in college, so I had the experience and advice of professors and professional screenwriters, but alas, there are no books I can recommend to replicate that kind of education.
I hope this helps! Let me know if you have any other questions about screenwriting, pitching stories, Hollywood-ish stuff, or just writing questions in general. Cheers!
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