I've been telling stories forever. I've spent my creative and professional life writing scripts for network television, studios, and independent producers. I'm a Lifetime Writer's Guild member, which less than 10% of WGA writers achieve. Because I thrive on helping writers achieve their goals, I taught university-level screenwriting for nearly three decades. I know these books work because they've helped me and my students, some of whom are successful Hollywood writers and producers, partially due to the influence of these five amazing books, which continues to be felt through every corner of my website.
The gold standard, will help every kind of story. I wrote six screenplays (some of which sold!) with it open on my desk. Chris's book was my Yellow Brick Road toward writing success. When I picked it up, I didn't know much. When I set it down, I knew enough to write screenplays producers would finish reading, option, and produce.
If I pull out my credit card, I want a book to do what I hope it will. This is one of the few writing books that way over-delivers. If I had an altar to books about writing, this one would have the most candles.
Originally an influential memo Vogler wrote for Walt Disney Animation executives regarding The Lion King, The Writer’s Journey details a twelve-stage, myth-inspired method that has galvanized Hollywood’s treatment of cinematic storytelling. A format that once seldom deviated beyond a traditional three-act blueprint, Vogler’s comprehensive theory of story structure and character development has met with universal acclaim, and is detailed herein using examples from myths, fairy tales, and classic movies. This book has changed the face of screenwriting worldwide over the last 25 years, and continues to do so.
Dedicated to two essentials that make me jump up and salute: how to write by getting in touch with your unconscious and an amazing way to outline. That's all. Two ideas. But they're two of the most important concepts to master to become a writer who gets paid.
This book excites me because I know how much aspiring writers need it. From the year I first read it until I left university teaching, I required it in every writing class in my department. If, for decades I made students read it, you can bet I'm delighted for you to put it on your reading list.
This comprehensive guide to writing creative fiction collects the lectures of the Pulitzer Prize winning author, Robert Olen Butler, transcribed and edited by Janet Burroway, the author of the classic text on creative writing, "Writing Fiction". "From Where You Dream" reimagines the process of writing as emotional rather than intellectual, and tells writers how to achieve the dreamspace necessary for composing honest, inspired fiction. Proposing fiction as the exploration of the human condition with yearning as its compass, Butler reinterprets the traditional tools of the craft using the dynamics of desire. Butler offers invaluable insights into the nature of voice…
Do you freeze up when your characters drift into the bedroom? Are you puzzled about how much to say and how to say it? What to call the body parts that bring us so much pleasure and so much anguish?
If you’re writing a novel and there’s a sexual encounter…
Save the Cat is nuts and bolts, but Strikes Back! is spiritual lightning. After STC, Blake went around the world, visiting writer's groups inspired by his book. Their input changed him and helped me. I thank them all! My copy is crazy highlighted, written in, and well-worn. Blake learned, and so did I, SO much about writing and its psychology, like how an "independent spirit" can wreck positive mojo or how clinging to a bad idea is because I was afraid I couldn't think of a better one.
Like STC, it's accessible, totally understandable, and wonderfully helpful, but it's... way deeper. I came away from this book with a more profound understanding of my particular writing (and teaching) process. Thank you, Blake.
Blake Snyder is back with the book countless readers and students have clamoured for. Inspired by questions from his workshops, lectures, and emails, Blake listened and provides new tips, tactics, and techniques to solve your writing problems and create stories that resonate: The 7 warning signs you might have a great idea or not; 2 sure-fire templates for can t-miss loglines; The difference between structure and formula; The Transformation Machine that allows you to track your hero s growth step-by-step; The 5 questions to keep your story s spine straight; The 5-Point Finale to finish any story; The Save the…
The most important music producer in this country talks about creativity. I didn't know how much I needed this book until I read it. This is the only book that, as soon as I finished, I immediately read again. Almost everything he says applies to writing!
Rubin showed me fears I had buried and gave me ways to cure them.
Worth the price of 10 copies! He is staggeringly intelligent, so experienced, and so kind. In any creative business, a guiding hand on the shoulder from a knowledgeable guide can mean the difference between agony and life. This is that hand. This book gave me a jet-assisted confidence boost. A book changes me almost never, but this one did.
From the legendary music producer, a master at helping people connect with the wellsprings of their creativity, comes a beautifully crafted book many years in the making that offers that same deep wisdom to all of us.
"A gorgeous and inspiring work of art on creation, creativity, the work of the artist. It will gladden the hearts of writers and artists everywhere, and get them working again with a new sense of meaning and direction. A stunning accomplishment.” —Anne Lamott
“I set out to write a book about what to do to make a…
Do you freeze up when your characters drift into the bedroom? Are you puzzled about how much to say and how to say it? What to call the body parts that bring us so much pleasure and so much anguish?
If you’re writing a novel and there’s a sexual encounter…
An instruction manual on nurturing a writing career's most difficult, most fragile, and most important relationship: the agent. When I read the first chapter, I cried because, had I had this book at the beginning of my career, I never would've made the mistakes that made my writing life more difficult and less profitable.
Because it's so excruciatingly difficult to get an agent, you do not want to screw up that precious relationship. This book would've kept me out of so much trouble! A mentor-in-book-form, it's jammed with excellent career advice, writing advice, and handling your agent advice. If I could've invented a time machine when I started and plucked this from the future, I'd live in a much nicer house.
Have you written the script for the next box office blockbuster or hit TV show and just need the right agent to sell it? Not sure whether to accept an if-come deal or a script commitment? Debating which manager is the right choice to steer your career? Well, worry no more...
How to Manage Your Agent is a fun, friendly guide to the world of literary representation. Enter the inner sanctums of Hollywood's power-brokers and learn how they influence what pitches get bought, what projects get sold, and which writers get hired.
Find tips from top-level executives, agents, managers, producers,…
Your goal as a writer and the goal of my book: get producers, agents, and actors to read it until the end. If they put your script down, often as soon as page 3, you've wasted your time. My book is a checklist of mistakes you don't even know about that will stop readers from reading.
When someone reads your first page, they can't tell if you understand structure or tension or character arc, but they know if you can write. My book's got plenty about character and structure, etc., but what separates YSS! from the pack is its detailed instruction on making your sentences clear, concise, and compelling. Every component of YSS! aims at keeping your reader reading all the way to FADE OUT.
