(Part 2) Best products from r/Screenwriting

• Writing the Romantic Comedy
  by Billy Mernit
  
  
• Not on Kindle, which is my main gripe. Very useful structure.
  
• Supposedly the ebook is a coming. I'm ready.
  
  
• Writing the Comedy Blockbuster: The Inappropriate Goal
  by Keith Giglio
  
  
• Save the Cat but focused specifically on writing comedies. Really focuses on making sure you derive maximum conflict from your protagonist meeting your premise.
  
  
• Elephant Bucks: An Insider's Guide to Writing for TV Sitcoms
  by Sheldon Bull
  
  
• A decades long professional writer and showrunner tells you how to write a sitcom. You're dumb if you wanna write sitcoms and haven't cracked this open yet.
  
  
• How to Write Funny: Your Serious, Step-By-Step Blueprint For Creating Incredibly, Irresistibly, Successfully Hilarious Writing
  by Scott Dikkers
  
  
• Again, a professional explains how he works. Dikkers was head writer on The Onion for years and years.
  
  
  
• Writing the Pilot
  by William Rabkin
  
• Again, a veteran showrunner explains what he knows.
  
  
• Screenwriting is Rewriting: The Art and Craft of Professional Revision 1st Edition
  by Jack Epps Jr
  
• Fucking gold. I'd read it even before you start a first draft.
  
  
• William Martell Blue Books
  
• Three Hundred Pages on Act Two and how to craft it. Three Hundred and Ten pages on the first ten pages of your screenplay! Three hundred and ninety! Pages! On! Action lines!
  
• Essential if you want to really dig deep on a specific skill of screenwriting.
  
  
  
• Writing for emotional impact : advanced dramatic techniques to attract, engage, and fascinate the reader from beginning to end by Karl Iglesias
  
• A very useful lens to think about screenwriting through. I'd consider this the intro to the kind of specificity that the Blue Books will break down into.
  
  
• Writing Movies for Fun and Profit by Robert Ben Garant and Thomas Lennon
  
• Four quadrant movies are probably the hardest movies to do well. And these guys did them, very well. Plus the book will make you laugh as you read it.
  
  
• Writing the Other by by Nisi Shawl and Cynthia Ward
  
  • Which is a practical guide to writing about experiences that are not your own, with a focus on race, gender, and sexual orientation.
    
• It'll definitely inform my take the next time reddit implodes on who can write what character.
  
  
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  The only non Screenwriter on the list are Scott Dikkers, Nisi Shawl and Cynthia Ward.
  
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  I'm Currently going through:
  
  
• Wit's End: What Wit Is, How It Works, and Why We Need It by James Geary
  
  • I am always trying to be smarter and funnier. And funny smart people get hired.
    
    
    
• Wired for Story: The Writer's Guide to Using Brain Science to Hook Readers from the Very First Sentence by Lisa Cron
  
• The science behind why we enjoy narrative and how that can guide writers to write well.
  
  And want to read:
  
  
• The Hero Succeeds: The Character-Driven Guide to Writing Your TV Pilot by Kam Miller
  
• Working Writer. 500 pages on characters in a pilot. Real world examples. Of course I want to read this.
  
• I think I heard about it from Paperteam, or a blog post on the WGA Foundation page.

There are a TON of books out there about writing television and comedy in particular and they can be really helpful, but the best way to learn is really to read scripts. Second to that is what I and my colleagues like to refer to as daring to fail (just write your story), if you have a great story, structure can always be taught and worked out.

If you're working on writing a spec, the best thing you can do is collect as many copies of scripts for the show you're planning to write a spec for and use them as a map - those scripts will inform you about how that particular show is structured because even though there are industry standards, all shows are unique. Depending on length some shows might be 5 acts and a teaser (if it's a one-hour) or 3 acts and a teaser (most half hours), or any other combination of acts and teasers and kickers.

When you're reading these scripts pay close attention to the act-outs to see how the writers typically like to end each act and where the beats fall.

As for books, Show Me the Funny is a good resource. The Hollywood Standard is a staple. Writing the TV Drama Series is one of my favorites, and even though you're looking to write comedy, it is an excellent resource. I haven't read Inside the Room, but I've heard great things about it and it's on my list, so it might be worth a look.

One other thing I will point out is that when you're looking for books that are specifically to be used as resources for writing television, I would steer clear of most books published prior to 2009. I only say that because television more than film has really evolved in a very short amount of time and you want to make sure you're getting the most up to date information.

Other resources to take a look at would be Jon August's Blog, Jane Espenson's blog (though she hasn't updated it in quite awhile), Ken Levine's blog, The Aspiring TV Writer, and The Artful Writer.

I also HIGHLY recommend subscribing and listening to the Nerdist Writer's Panel with Ben Blacker. It's chock full of amazing advice, tips, and great stories from a ton of current television writers.

Hopefully some of this will be helpful! Good luck in your writing endeavors!

I'm a fellow midwesterner that moved to L.A. in the late 90s and moved back to the midwest in 2006 (to raise our children closer to family).

First and foremost, forget about where to work right now. If you want to be a screenwriter, you need to hone your craft. Geography isn't going to matter in that respect. If you want to move to L.A. now and have the means to do so, go for it. If you can wait a year or two as you hone your craft first, great.

No industry job will afford you the proper chance to become a successful screenwriter AT THIS STAGE. You have no writing to speak of YET. So any contacts or networking that could be done within an industry job won't do you any good because you will have nothing to show for it. One script isn't enough. You need 3-5 amazing scripts before anyone will take you seriously. Even if you were to luck out, win a big contest and get some calls, the first question they'll ask in that phone call or general meeting is "What else do you have?" If you've got nothing else, no agent or manager will want you. Nor will a producer or exec, unless they are ape shit over the script that got you in there, which hardly ever happens.

Hone your craft. Read as many produced scripts as you can. Read, for the basics, The Screenwriter's Bible and How NOT to Write a Screenplay. And not to be a shill, check out this one that I edited and wrote most of (I make nothing off of it)... https://www.amazon.com/Craft-Business-Screenwriting-Television-ScreenCraft-ebook/dp/B01CAYTD42/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1466019424&sr=8-1&keywords=screencraft

Then just start to write, write, write. I'd suggest avoiding writing short scripts unless you want to get them made as indie short films. You need to train yourself for FEATURES so you need to WRITE FEATURES.

Your first one will likely be terrible. Just get it done. Your second will allow you to learn from your mistakes hopefully. Then you'll start to get into a groove.

Train yourself to finish a feature script in 10 weeks (give or take a couple). That's the industry standard time limit you have when you're under contract so you should get ahead of the game and learn to write under such a deadline.

Take a year or two to get 3-5 amazing scripts written. Choose the concepts wisely. Write what you want to write mixed with what people are willing to buy, but make the concepts original, unique, and engaging.

THEN you can have a go at a career. THEN you'll be ahead of the game. THEN you'll have increased your odds of success ten fold.

Do this in the midwest or while working in L.A. IF you choose to move to L.A. early AS YOU WRITE FOR 1-2 YEARS, don't market anything. Just get an industry job(s) that gets you into the system. Anything. I started as a frickin' security guard at Sony to get into the walls. Worked my way up into a studio liaison position and then became a Sony script reader. Best education I've ever had. Any job (intern, assistant, reader) where you can read scripts and write coverage will be your best education for your own writing.

Don't rush. The year or two you take to hone your writing without taking it out to anyone will be your best and most cherished move in retrospect.

Know your fears - this is something I took from twyla tharp's incredible book the creative habit. In the book, which you should absolutely read, she talks about fears, and then, in an act of incredible courage, writes all of her personal artistic fears right there on the page for the world to see. (Her fears are, "1. People will laugh at me. 2. Someone has done it before. 3. I have nothing to say. 4. I will upset someone I love. 5. Once executed, the idea will never be as good as it is in my mind.")

I'm so grateful for her articulating those, because it allowed me to see the incredible power of simply setting your fears down on paper and understanding them. I realized that my own fears, which are different from hers have been dramatically impacting my behavior. Just by putting them down, they lose a smidge of their power, because you begin to see the logical flaws in your subconscious reasoning. (Incidentally, in the spirit of Twyla's honesty, my fears are: that my writer friends and mentors will read something I wrote and decide that I am a weaker writer than they thought; that my manager and agent will read my work and take me less seriously; that the next script will not help me move forward in my career, that I'll stall and lose my job and get fired; that I will have to move my wife back into a shitty living situation when we can't make rent.)

Action item: find a blank page. Write: "I'm afraid of..." and then keep your pen moving. When you get stuck, re-write, "I'm afraid of..." and take a different tack. Think about writing whatever you're procrastinating on right now, and the weird feeling in your gut that appears that's stopping you from working. Dig into it. "I'm afraid of..."

If it helps, you can burn or shred this page later.

Then, maybe later on, distill what you've written down into a few bullet points. Maybe you'll do this once, or maybe you'll come back to this exercise over and over as you write and discover more about yourself and what's actually motivating you.

welcome and embrace your fears. this is something I've distilled from a lifetime of reading Buddhist psychology and philosophy. A great introduction to the concept, though, would be Fear by the Vietnamiese monk Thich Nhat Hanh. The point here is that when you think about writing, or sit down to write, and find yourself encountering writers block, instead of just pushing past it, you want to sit back a moment and say, "I know there is this fear in me. I've seen this before, I've written it down." Then, instead of fighting it, you just sit with it a while and don't try to change it. Eventually, you can even come to take care of it, and take care of the wounded part of you that is causing the fear.

action item: when you find yourself procrastinating or experiencing writer's block, stop a moment, and say: "I'm experiencing a fear right now. Hello fear, old friend, I see you in me." This is a better strategy than 'powering through' or watching youtube for 6 hours (my typical move).

bigger action item: beyond the scope of this post, but I've found the above is significantly easier if I've been meditating regularly for 15 minutes a day or longer. Google, search youtube, subscribe to headspace or calm. If you think this is hogwash, the best skeptics discussion of meditation is 10% happier by dan harris.

routine: this is the underlying premise of the creative habit, which gives it its title. The idea is, it's much easier to overcome initial resistance if you develop a routine you follow every day, and the routine ends with you beginning to work.

action item: cultivate the habit of writing every day. Cultivate additional little habits that trigger 'it's writing time', like lighting a candle, putting on your headphones, sitting in a specific room or at a specific table, whatever. Something along the lines of a free-throw shooter dribbling three times before every shot, sort of thing.

morning pages. This is from the book the artists way by julia cameron. The whole book is kind of an exploration of writer's block, in a sense; and it's full of very smart ideas and actionable suggestions on the subject. But the cream of her teaching is: write three handwritten pages of whatever every morning, or when you sit down to write. This little suggestion is truly life-altering -- I was extremely skeptical upon hearing this advice, and now I swear by it. It gives you a place to excise all the junk and demons floating around in your brain every day, kind of like being your own therapist. And it gets you in the habit of moving your pen, writing what comes out, and not self-censoring. It is a way to both strengthen your ability to start writing freely, and simultaneously weaken your fears, procrastination, and distracting surface emotions.

action item: cultivate the habit of writing 3 pages longhand every day. If you're really stuck, get the book and work her 12-week program, it will absolutely un-stuck you, guaranteed.

do the work: the last thing I want to put here is kind of self-evident, but it deserves saying anyway: when it's all said and done, you need to actually put your ass in the chair and start writing. It's like swimming: you can't get better at it by thinking about it strategically or theoretically; you need to put most of your effort into putting out pages. Especially when you're just starting out, the best thing you can do is do a huge volume of work. It's not going to be as good as you want to be at first; it's like that for everyone. You just need to fight through that and write more, and it absolutely will get better over time.

action item: put yourself on a deadline to finish one short every week or two weeks or something. Or one pilot or feature every three or four months. Commit to making mistakes as fast as possible, embrace that things will fall short of your aspirations at first, and just do as much volume as possible.

Hope this helps and I welcome any feedback.

Yeah no worries happy to help, definitely PM me. I'm happy to offer you suggestions if that's useful to you.

If you're at all curious about the mechanics of what you're trying to work with your audience, it might help you to understand it based on brain science. The problem with forcing a symbol onto a character or a character into a symbol sets up a battle between your right and left hemispheres of the brain.

The right hemisphere lacks language so it largely works in meaning, symbols, images, and lives in the moment. The left hemisphere (specifically the portion behind your left eye) is constantly trying to generate a story of what it's seeing and make predictions of what will happen next based on what happened before. It also seems to contain language primarily.

So, in my opinion, symbols ideally should be generated by your right hemisphere which is responding to reality but unable to coin it words. From there, your left hemisphere should gather that up and codify it into a storyline. However, by trying to craft the symbol first, that's likely how you got a blockage. You're telling your left hemisphere to create the symbol which is disconnected by meaning because the left hemisphere doesn't really care if things are meaningful or not. It just wants to generate a story to cover it's ass.

There's a good writeup about how they learned all of this mentioned in Jonathan Gottschall's book The Storytelling Animal. Basically, in the early 1960s, a man's corpus callosum (the median between his two hemispheres) was severed and so his hemispheres couldn't talk to each other. Then, they gave the man a divider and began to show each of his eyes different things. So they might show his left eye a picture of chickens and his right eye a field of snow. They'd offer him objects and his immediate reaction came from his right hemisphere, so he'd grab a snow shovel. However, his left hemisphere had to justify why it had done that and so when questioned why he went for the snow shovel, he said "To pick up the chicken poop!"

The point is the right hemisphere is the center you want to trigger deeply in your audience. That's why peculiar symbols and mythic motifs stir people in deep ways. It's the right hemisphere that wants to swing a light saber for example, or responds to conversations in Tarantino films about food. The problem with a lot of screenplays is there's a lack of understanding of these core ideas and as a result, some people just let their left hemisphere generate story thread garbage that doesn't really make sense or work.

Now that's not to say that you have to have an insane understanding of symbolism to write a good screenplay. You don't. We all understand these things deeply in our own right hemispheres. You should, however, be aiming to be inspired by your own deeper meaningfulness but also willing to share your ideas with others to polish your storytelling. This is why oral storytellers are constantly re-working their stories.

The shortcut of course, is to utilize standard mythological motifs. However, there's problems with this as anyone who learned Joseph Campbell's Hero Journey can see. Just because you're using a mythological motif doesn't mean you're utilizing meaningful symbolism. The Hero's Journey is a collection of 12 or so motifs that Campbell saw. Well those aren't the only motifs out there. Vladimir Propp's version has about 31 core motifs (he calls functions) and Stith Thompson's collection has over 46,000 motifs and are quite useful for story generation if you develop an eye for updating old storyforms. (I've done quite a few story creation experiments using Thompson's stuff).

If you don't work from an understanding of meaning and symbolism, it's like creating a person whose bones are all dislocated from each other and therefore can't move. If your story can't move, it definitely can't move your audience. You need meaningful symbolism to pull that off, and it doesn't take much to be honest. Stanley Kubrick would write his films around 6 to 8 meaningful symbolic ideas, which he termed "non submersible units" and then craft the story around that. Ray Bradbury in his book Zen in the Art of Writing describes hiding meaningful moments from his childhood into his stories in order to give them soul as well. You get the idea.

I'd start with Save the Cat because it's a fun read and does a great job of laying down the basic structure without over-complicating things.


After you've got that down I'd move on to something a bit more theoretical. I would highly recommend The Art of Dramatic Writing by Lajos Egri. It's about playwriting but the structure is similar and it really impressed upon me the importance of structuring a plot around a character and not the other way around.


I'd also recommend The Sequence Approach as a supplemental structure to the traditional 3 Act structure. The book basically breaks a screenplay into a number of goal-oriented sequences that help guide you towards a satisfying resolution.


I'd keep Story by Robert McKee and Screenplay by Syd Field around for references, but they are more like text books for me and not really inspiring.


One of my professors in grad school wrote a book called The Story Solution based on his own interpretation of story structure. Similar to the sequence approach, he breaks out a screenplay into 23 'hero goal sequences' that keep your story grounded and moving forward, while ensuring that your hero is making progress and completing his character arc.


Also, in answer to your beat question: A beat is the smallest block of measurable plot. a collection of beats make a scene, a collection of scenes makes a sequence, a collection of sequences make an act, a collection of acts make a narrative. Every beat of your screenplay needs to serve the premise in some way or you end up with a bloated script that will drag. Many times writers will actually write 'a beat' into their script to show that there is silence or a pause that is significant to the plot. An example might be a brief pause before a character lies to another character.

For a broad and comprehensive overview with less technical information, go for Screenwriting 101 by Film Crit Hulk, along with any of his wonderful articles.

For the technical specifics of modern screenwriting, The Hollywood Standard by Christopher Riley is solid, though it's really not that complicated and I wouldn't worry too much. Just use a program like Celtx to do your formatting and you're sweet.

If you want to blow your mind with dogmatic but largely correct info on the structuring of effective stories in general go for The Art of Dramatic Writing by Lajos Egri, written about playwriting but incredibly relevant.

I also recommend you learn the basics of filmmaking. I personally believe it's vital to properly writing screenplays (rather than generic writing dressed in screenplay clothes). The stuff's got to be shootable, designed for a reasonable budget, and more importantly, suited to the film medium itself.

A great book for that is On Film-Making by Alexander Mackendrick.

I also highly recommend In the Blink of an Eye by Walter Murch, written about editing and invaluable. Editing is the essence of film as we know it, so it's in your interests to know it intimately.

ScriptNotes podcast. Literally everything you need to know and how to apply it. They even have this PDF called "The 100 Most Commonly Asked Questions About Screenwriting" that you can download for free here. Would post the actual file, but it's live, meaning it's updated periodically. So I recommend signing up.

If your interested in writing for television the TV Writer's Workbook is a must have. Simplifies everything and uses actual examples from the author's work ("Everybody Loves Raymond") to iterate points.

But most importantly, read. Everything. Especially screenplays. Like, a lot. Start with your favorite movies (or shows). Then go back and watch the film (or episode). What works? What doesn't? And why?

Good luck!

I'm in a similar situation, I've read Ellen Sandler's The TV Writer's Workbook. She wrote for Everyone Loves Raymond and the book is very helpful IMO. She advised the following on choosing which show to spec for.

• 1- The show must be on-air. Off-air means it's an old show and not relevant. Any show on-air for more than 5 years is too old to spec for, it's not keeping with the trends.
  
• 2 - It should be a hit show. Hit shows won't likely be cancelled by the time you write your spec. People are familiar with show and character. Hits are copied. Clones are looking for staff. If you wrote a spec of a show they cloned, it shows you can write for the show. Hit shows should be in the top 25-30 in rankings, check Neilsen ratings. Check awards, if it has won or been nominated for Emmys, Golden Globes and Guild Awards (Screen Actor, Director's Guild, Writer's Guild), the industry is aware of the show.
  
• 3 - If you have a connection with someone from a show (cast, crew, etc.), they can get you scripts of that show for you to study. You can also ask for feedback on your spec from one of the writer's on the show.
  
• 4 - Write for a show you like. If you don't like it, it'll show.
  
  Hope that helps. If you need more info on the book, please PM me.

I'm not a lawyer but I've read this - http://www.amazon.com/Clearance-Copyright-4th-Edition-Everything/dp/1935247123 - And I'm pretty sure you're fine. It's actually an easy and interesting read, if you're interested.

Did Tarantino need to get approval from McDonalds before the quarter pounder scene? Nope.

EDIT: You said "it seems it should be a lot easier locating beats and acts in a series where commercials doesn't mess everything up." -- I'd say the opposite is true for television. You literally have act breaks on the page for network shows. It really doesn't get clearer than that.

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I struggled with this a lot because I attempted TV pilots after writing features. While simon2it's approach makes a lot of sense, I'd also recommend keeping a few other things in mind:

In network television, commercial breaks DO equal act breaks (at least, that's the norm). And that does mean up to seven acts as opposed to the traditional 4/5 because the number of breaks are on the up. So for studying television structure, broadcast shows (1 hr dramas and 1/2 hour sitcoms) are the best point of entry for newbies, or writers who're trained in features. Watch as many pilots as you can (as these typically lay the structural foundation for episodes to follow), and READ as many pilots as you can. You'll find act breaks on the page. These are available online, but if you struggle to find them, drop me a PM with your e-mail ID and I'll send you a few. I just checked the pilot script for ABC's American Crime, and it has five acts (maybe I'll watch the pilot in a couple days and let you know how this reconciles with the commercial breaks). Mr. Robot doesn't have act divisions on the page.

Next, I'd advise against approaching television structure using Save The Cat or any similar paradigm. I suppose it's theoretically possible, but in my experience, you need to shed "feature thinking" if you really want to understand television structure, which is more liberal and allows you to just focus on telling a really good story. For instance, sitcom episodes are often not goal-driven (as is the norm in features), but tend to build towards a future event which serves as a third-act set piece. Network procedurals might be comparable to features, but things will get really muddy if you use a feature lens to understand cable and streaming.

In sum, to understand television structure: watch tv pilots, and read tv pilots and episodes. Everything you can get your hands on. That's the best education you could possibly have. If you'd like to complement this with theory, I'd recommend these books:

Writing the TV Drama Series, by Pamela Douglas
http://www.amazon.com/Writing-TV-Drama-3rd-Professional/dp/1615930582/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1452403878&sr=8-1&keywords=pamela+douglas

Future of Television, by Pamela Douglas
http://www.amazon.com/Future-Television-Guide-Creating-World/dp/1615932143/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1452403878&sr=8-2&keywords=pamela+douglas

Into the Woods, by John Yorke
http://www.amazon.com/Into-Woods-Five-Act-Journey-Story/dp/1468310941/ref=sr_1_9?ie=UTF8&qid=1452403897&sr=8-9&keywords=into+the+woods

There are hundreds of books, podcasts, websites, etc. that cover things like this.


If you go on Amazon and search for "Screenwriting business" (which is where you could have checked before asking this question) you'll find almost 1000 titles, including this one:


https://www.amazon.com/Craft-Business-Screenwriting-Television-ScreenCraft-ebook/dp/B01CAYTD42/ref=sr_1_2?keywords=screenwriting+business&qid=1559293365&s=books&sr=1-2




Some of my favorite books are:

• What Happens Next: A History of American Screenwriting
  
• Adventures in the Screen Trade: A Personal View of Hollywood and Screenwriting
  
• Which Lie Did I Tell?: More Adventures in the Screen Trade
  
• Just the Funny Parts: … And a Few Hard Truths About Sneaking into the Hollywood Boys’ Club
  
• The First Time I Got Paid For It: Writers’ Tales From The Hollywood Trenches
  
  
  

  Podcasts
  

  
  

  Scriptnotes
  

  
  The number-one screenwriting podcast is unquestionably Scriptnotes, with over 100,000 weekly listeners and over 400 episodes.
  
  New episodes are free (and don’t even have annoying ads!) and have transcripts available within a week after the podcast airs.
  
  Older episodes are available for a premium subscription or you can buy a 50-episode season for $5.
  
  The Listener’s Guide will help you navigate back episodes.
  
  IMHO, if you’re not listening to Scriptnotes you’re not serious about screenwriting.
  
  ​
  
  

  Screenwriting Websites
  

  
  JohnAugust.com
  
  Home of the Scriptnotes podcasts and transcripts, plus sample scripts and other resources.
  
  Go into the Story
  
  Named “Best of the Best” Scriptwriting Website by Writer’s Digest
  
  Black List Screenwriter’s Notebook
  
  Books, essays, talks, podcasts, data, and more.
  
  Nicholl Fellowship Formatting Guide
  
  Nicholl-winning scripts are also available here, and there’s a long list of recommended books.
  
  
  More on my website:
  
  
  https://lauridonahue.com/screenwriting-tools-and-communities-stps-7/

I can't recomend or say this enough.

You need to read three books:

1. Save The Cat. This book will give you the basics of how to write a script, and what points to follow.
   
   
2. Here With A Thousand Faces. This is the same information you would get in Save The Cat, however, it's way more involved. This book isn't about screenwriting, it's about story/myth and how we tell them. READ THIS BOOK!
   
   
3. The Power of Myth. Another book by Joseph Cambell, which explains why we tell stories the way we do, and why you should write your stories using the 'Hero's Journey' (see Hero With A Thousand Faces).
   
   It is important to learn these basics, as you need to learn to walk, before you can fly a fighter jet.
   
   Happy to answer any and all questions for you!!! But these books are a must!!! I read them all, and still have Hero & Power of Myth on my desk.

Daniel Calvisi's books & seminars are helpful -- I'm reading this one right now and it was worth the buy:

https://www.amazon.com/STORY-MAPS-Structure-One-Hour-Television/dp/0983626685/ref=sr_1_2?crid=1L4GN8POKEJFF&keywords=daniel+calvisi&qid=1571069394&sprefix=daniel+calvisi%2Caps%2C345&sr=8-2

I also love this breakdown in The Atlantic re: half hour comedies:

https://www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2014/12/cracking-the-sitcom-code/384068/

Good luck!

Michael Bay, is that you? huehuehue

As far as format goes, The Complete Screenwriter's Manual covers everything. I mean, you say you know format. Everyone says they know format. A fraction of those claimants actually have command of format, though. This book covers just about everything.


Read/watch anything you can find on storytelling in general; not just movies. Structure, theme, the writing process, whatever. You'll find that the authors, writers of tips and lists, etc., are repeating each other and drawing from the same sources.


Much/most of modern screenwriting is informed by the works of mythologist Joseph Campbell. George Lucas was a student of his, and Robert McKee (book here) relies heavily on Campbell, as well.


Truby's 22 Steps is much the same, but he goes back to Lord Raglan's Hero Scale--Lord Raglan was one of Campbell's predecessors/influences--and secularized/generalized it, since it had been focused mostly on divine/mythological figures like Jesus and Krishna. He basically just reworded it to have an Everyman bent.


Pick up A Brief History of the Movies, and watch the films as you go through it. That'll give you a primer on the development of the artform.


Do you have a buddy to tackle all this writing bidness? Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg had their first draft of Superbad done at your age. Kenny and Spenny wrote an episode of Ninja Turtles when they were, like, 11 or 12.


Oh, as for actually getting gear and filming stuff: if you're in a bigger city, there might be a film/TV co-op or a filmmaking camp for the teenagers...with the hippin n the hoppin n the bippin n the boppin...

>I know both Harmon's story circles and Snyder's StC is a variation of the Hero's Journey

All different names for the same thing.

>I know a lot of people don't like Save the Cat

People don't like Save the Cat because they view it as formulaic.

Save the Cat is like the Better Homes and Gardens Cookbook. You can follow a recipe and have a pretty good meal. Probably better than attempting to make it by pure guesswork, even. But you're not going to become a professional chef with that alone. It's not exactly telling you why it's using coriander instead of cumin, which to a beginner may very well be the same damn thing.

Use the training wheels. Get used to writing. Next up, read something like Syd Field's Screenwriting or Robert McKee's Story. Once you're done, check out Christopher Vogler's The Writer's Journey. And from now until whenever, continue to read scripts by others (both good and bad).

Keep in mind that unlike a novel, you don't need to get too specific with the little details like one would with a novel. Only include things that are important to the story, ie: don't bother mentioning a green dress unless it has meaning to the over all story. Learn the inner workings of story structure.
Write often, make sure to set aside some time everyday to practice.
Book that might help:
http://www.amazon.com/Save-Cat-Blake-Snyder-ebook/dp/B00340ESIS/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1407745828&sr=8-1&keywords=save+the+cat

Pretty close to what I am learning in school.

I haven't read this, but I've heard great great things: http://smile.amazon.com/Secrets-Action-Screenwriting-fully-revised-ebook/dp/B006KTHKSA

Read this book. It will give you a strong overview of everything you need to know about how to write and the business of screenwriting.

After that, if you still hunger for more knowledge,
here is my recommended reading list.

These are IMHO the best books on particular writing topics.

My rule of thumb is write one script for every book you read. SO before you move on to the reading list, you should write a script with what you've learned from the first book.

Good luck, and keep writing.

Save the Cat by Blake Snyder - usually criticized for taking a one mind ultimate approach to structure. He provides basically qa formula for screenwriting which people often say is the completely wrong way to go about it.

Story by Robert Mckee - a book that delves into a little bit of everything.

Syd Field - A well known author with a fairly large catalog.

The issue a lot of people have with these books is that they often preach a step by step or formulaic process for writing a screenplay. Something people argue kills the art/creativity of it and makes it boring. Personally, I don't they will hurt you much. I'd advise if you read anything don't take it as rules, just what works for someone else and might help you some along the way. Don't read Save the Cat and feel like you have to hit every mark on the exact page. Like you probably want to have an act 1 break into act 2 but don't force it to land exactly on p30. Look at everything you read as basic guidelines, the great thing about writing is there are NO rules.

As for formatting, don't worry about it. If you aren't yet, use screenwriting software. Use SCREENWRITING SOFTWARE. USE SCREENWRITING SOFTWARE. It does everything for you and there are a lot of great free alternatives(I really like Fade In right now). Seriously these days formatting should be at the bottom of what you are worrying about.

Kindle version is ten bucks and the kindle app is free.

Buy and read the book.
Read scripts from action movies you love.
Watch action movies you love.
Start brainstorming action movie ideas.

Write some action movies.

Understanding the three act structure is imperative. If you can think of something that you've written in the past and can apply it, or at least place the details and events in the structure, that should help a lot. McKee is a good read. It should answer a ton of questions.

The Writer's Journey is great too. But if you can write and you understand the structure that is looked for in visual media, you should be good.

Only 1 period (.) in a slug, unless it's ext./int.

EXT. JOHN'S SHACK - DAY
EXT. JOHN'S SHACK - NIGHT
INT. JOHN'S SHACK - DAY
INT. JOHN'S SHACK - NIGHT

The only time you ever use one - dash (hyphen) is in a slug, everywhere else use two--.

If you have a scene that is both exterior and interior, like inside a car and a man on the sidewalk, do this:

EXT./INT. SIDEWALK/PINK CADILLAC - DAY

Here's a flashback slug (underline FLASHBACK):

FLASHBACK EXT. CRAZY LAND - DAY

Not using a dash at all is also fine.

EXT. JOE'S CRAB SHACK DAY
(EXT.(1 space)JOE'S(1 space)CRAB SHACK(3 spaces)DAY)

Just make sure you're consistant.

A very good book with script formatting is called Your Screenplay Sucks, I strongly recommend it to everyone because it provides the logical reasons for certain formatting and why it is necessary.

I personally loved The Art of Dramatic Writing by Lajos Egri

http://www.amazon.com/Art-Of-Dramatic-Writing-Interpretation/dp/9562915867

(there are negative reviews of that edition that complain about the formatting, but included the link so you could read the positive reviews. Here is a different edition of the same book: http://www.amazon.com/The-Dramatic-Writing-Lajos-Egri/dp/1434495434 )

I also quite liked Writing For Emotional Impact by Karl Iglesias http://www.amazon.com/Writing-Emotional-Impact-Techniques-Fascinate/dp/1595940286/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1422728301&sr=1-1&keywords=writing+for+emotional+impact

I’ve had this recommended to me a couple of times but I haven’t read it yet. The Hero Succeeds: The character-driven guide to writing your tv pilot

Since format is not cut-and-dry- you may read five scripts that handle the same thing five different ways- the best education is to just read a whole lot of screenplays.

However, you'll want to pay special attention to those featured on the annual Black List, as most of them originated as 'specs'; such scripts are often a writer's first introduction to the professional side of the business, earning them their first manager and/or agent.

Here is a link to 2014's Black List scripts; this document details their ranking and provides a logline of each so you know what you're getting into. I'd recommend you read ALL of them- yes, all 71- because they run the gambit from bizarre yet captivating concepts to simple yet well-executed stories. You'll likely encounter something from every genre and will get a taste for what "voice" is (re: Brian Duffield's THE BABYSITTER).

In terms of books, a couple of stand-bys are Robert McKee's Story and Blake Snyder's Save the Cat.

>Would we(well, me) be safe from legal action, if we included this in the final product?

If a real place of business is a prominent, story defining part of your script/film then you would need to get legal clearance. https://www.amazon.com/Clearance-Copyright-4th-Everything-Television/dp/1935247123 is a lovely resource in you're serious about producing your own work.

This book helped me a great deal when I first started out. It's certainly one of the better books about the craft out there.

>I've only very recently decided that I wanted to go into film making for a career ...

Start with the basics then. Read Save the Cat, Story, Screenplay, and The Screenwriter's Bible.

Ask yourself what your five favorite films in the world are, that you could watch over and over again. Buy them on Bluray, and find a copy of their shooting script. This website is a good start, although you may have to buy them from somewhere. Watch the movies, then read the scripts, then repeat.

Then, with both the theory and the execution in your mind ... start to think of conflict, of drama, of characters and themes and story arcs.

Bluntly, it sounds like you're putting the horse well before the cart.

The Writer's Journey is a pretty standard text. It isn't specifically focused on comedy or screenwriting, but the lessons are applicable. It is based on "The Hero With A Thousand Faces" by Joseph Campbell (the link has the entire text on google books). Dan Harmon's "story circle" is also based on this work.

Yes. A thousand times this. The one major advantage of being a reader (it's certainly not the money) is that I have HAD to do this. Lots and lots and lots of scripts good and bad...mostly bad. It is soooo eye opening and has ultimately been of MORE use to me then just about anything else.

The one book I will recommend to you is Your Screenplay Sucks by William Ackers.

http://www.amazon.com/Your-Screenplay-Sucks-Ways-Great/dp/1932907459/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1320728507&sr=8-1

Why I like this guy is his emphasis is on training your eye to eliminate fat, be as clear and specific with your word choice/sentence structure as possible, and how to arrange the words on the page to make them as effective as they possibly can be.

Non pro writers just don't know how to do that kind of stuff (mostly cause they don't bother to read pro scripts...or worse they think what pros do is off limits for some stupid reason) and I just can't tell you how important it is.

Hero With A Thousand Faces:
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Thousand-Faces-Collected-Joseph-Campbell/dp/1577315936

Writers Journey:
http://www.thewritersjourney.com/hero%27s_journey.htm

2100+ stage Hero's Journey, Transformation, New World:
http://www.kalbashir.com/

Myth and the Movies:
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Myth-Movies-Discovering-Structure-Unforgettable/dp/0941188663

Perfecting Plot:
http://www.amazon.com/Perfecting-Plot-Charting-Journey-Sneaker/dp/0989378926

The Hero's 2 Journeys:
http://www.amazon.com/Heros-2-Journeys-Michael-Hauge/dp/1880717476

Two books that I found very helpful:

[The Anatomy of Story by John Truby](https://www.amazon.com/Anatomy-Story-
Becoming-Master-Storyteller/dp/0865479933/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1494365551&sr=8-1&keywords=john+truby)

(Also look him up on Youtube: Anatomy Of Story: The Complete Film Courage Interview with John Truby)

and

Three Uses of the Knife by David Mamet

I've really enjoyed Truby's The Anatomy of Story. I think why it's more valuable is it's part Campbell's "hero's journey", and part dissecting not just other scripts, but how they're condensed into a synopsis, what a spec treatment should look like, all while not being too prescriptive.

I read through the comments on this page and you basically need to read "Your Screenplay Sucks" - its an excellent book that will help you see why you shouldn't do the things you are doing.

This book helped me out when I first started. However, I used the 3rd edition, so not sure how much has changed in the 5th version to keep it updated. The screenwriting process keeps evolving, but the basics should still be there.

As far as screenwriting software, speakingofsegues has it right. CeltX is the one you want to use if you're looking for free software, but you will probably have to learn Final Draft at some point if you continue in this field. They do offer a demo to try it out.

On Filmmaking by Alexander McKendrick, who was a Brit director who transitioned to teaching at UCLA. His book only has a couple of chapters on screenwriting - which you can read in half an hour - but hands down, they contain the most useful nuggets of screenwriting advice that I've ever read.

https://www.amazon.com/Film-making-Introduction-Craft-Director/dp/0571211259/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1543043889&sr=8-1&keywords=on+filmmaking

I will be reviewing Mckendrick's storytelling system on Scriptfella in the near future.

SCRIPTFELLA

Screenwriting. Storytelling. Hollywood.

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC3uFGhMZ6jsnCb9agxzVxLw

If you want a book, Writing the TV Drama Series is pretty well respected around here. I've got it but have yet to read it. I've been too busy writing.

Lajos Egri's The Art of Dramatic writing. I always defer to Egri because he taught Woody Allen. If it's good enough for Woody Allen, it's good enough for me.

http://www.amazon.com/Art-Dramatic-Writing-Lajos-Egri/dp/1434495434http://www.amazon.com/Art-Dramatic-Writing-Lajos-Egri/dp/1434495434

"On Film Making" by Alexander Mackendrick.

This is actually a book on directing, however, his philosophy and lessons on dramatic structure are incredible and very useful for a writer. You wont find too many screenplay structure lessons though. So it depends on what you want.

I'm a big fan of The Anatomy of Story. It's got applications outside of screenwriting as well.

• https://www.amazon.com/Your-Screenplay-Sucks-Ways-Great/dp/1932907459/ref=sr_1_1
  
  
• https://www.amazon.com/Story-Substance-Structure-Principles-Screenwriting/dp/0060391685/ref=sr_1_1
  
  In that order.
  
  The rest are novels and screenplays you should read to understand story in general, you can't write unless you read, (hemingway, fitzgerald, dostoevsky, tolstoy, dickens, homer's odyssey, all the greats) screenplays being the latter as you're going to eventually get to the point where screenplays give you nothing anymore except critique, but are good at learning film story telling structure to begin with. You can find scripts here:
  
  
• http://www.imsdb.com
  
• http://www.script-o-rama.com/snazzy/table.html
  
• https://sfy.ru/
  
• http://www.dailyscript.com/
  
  *I forgot to mention, using final draft is really only a matter of tab and enter (double enter will bring a drop down if needed), if you want keyboard shortcuts, you can try Format > Elements, and you can specify or view them there. But, it's quite automatic in the sense that if you start a new line and type EXT or INT it's going to auto format, knowing it's a slugline. Always use Warner Bros template when starting a new script.

You might enjoy reading Writing the TV Drama Series by Pam Douglas.

To answer your question: yes.

Read this book. One of the only screenwriting guru books I return to often.

http://www.amazon.com/Screenwriting-Sequence-Approach-Paul-Gulino/dp/0826415687

Using the sequence approach can help with loose pacing. Traditionally the sequence approach will divide the script into 8 chunks of ~15 minutes screentime, but the number of sequences is arbitrary (usually betweeen 4-12). Each sequence should be a mini-movie addressing some sub-goal of the main dramatic question.

Also, start the script with existing conflict. Let the first sequence end with some disturbance/opportunity at page 10-15. Then introduce the main dramatic question at the end of the second sequence.

This book is a good starter: https://www.amazon.com/Screenwriting-Sequence-Paul-Joseph-Gulino/dp/0826415687

This. In Blake Snyder's Save the Cat! he talks about THIS EXACT TITLE as being overused, overly generic and gives virtually no insight into the film.

I just ordered...STORY MAPS: TV Drama: The Structure of the One-Hour Television Pilot (Volume 4) by Daniel P. Calvisi

It's arriving tomorrow and will let you know ;)

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0983626685/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

This approach made life really easy for me.

I read somewhere that Spielberg also uses the Sequence Model/Approach.

Start with [Screenwriting: The Sequence Approach by Paul Gulino.] (http://www.amazon.com/Screenwriting-Sequence-Approach-Paul-Gulino/dp/0826415687)

He analyses a bunch of movies using the approach.

[This] (http://thescriptlab.com/screenwriting/structure/the-sequence/45-the-eight-sequences) Script Lab Article will run you through the nuts and bolts of this approach.

That's all you need.

I believe that it's Screenplay by Syd Field. I read it but it doesn't hold a candle to Robert McKee's Story or John Truby's The Anatomy of Story. Field's reliance on 3-act structure is problematic for me, while Truby's 22 steps are a lifesaver.

CYA: No, these are not affiliate links, and no I am not being paid to sell you stuff. I'm currently reading McKee's Story and currently it's my favorite book on storytelling in general.

If you're looking at TV drama, Writing The TV Drama Series by Pam Douglas isn't bad.

http://www.amazon.com/Thousand-Faces-Collected-Joseph-Campbell/dp/1577315936

http://www.youtube.com/user/clickokDOTcoDOTuk/videos

http://channel101.wikia.com/wiki/Story_Structure_104:_The_Juicy_Details

http://thewritersjourney.com/

http://www.ibiblio.org/cdeemer/rhetoric.htm

Secrets of Action Screenwriting

http://www.buffyworld.com/buffy/scripts/001_scri.html

http://www.buffyworld.com/buffy/season1.php

https://www.amazon.com/Screenwriting-Sequence-Approach-Paul-Gulino/dp/0826415687

Also check out Writing the TV Drama Series.

If you haven't yet read Robert McKee's "Story", you probably should.

Screenwriter's Bible: http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/1879505843?pc_redir=1408078109&robot_redir=1

Story, McKee: http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B0042FZVOY?pc_redir=1408254965&robot_redir=1

Godspeed.

For formatting, check out this book:

http://www.amazon.com/Screenwriters-Bible-Complete-Writing-Formatting/dp/1935247026/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1320769315&sr=8-1

Here's a list for you. Not free of charge, however, I'm afraid.

No it's not.

Just buy this. Good enough to get started then read scripts and write:

http://www.amazon.com/Story-Structure-Substance-Principles-Screenwriting-ebook/dp/B0042FZVOY

You're probably confused about what having beats in a script means.

(beat)

is used to indicate a pause and/or shift in emotion in dialog. However, it is pretty cliche and should only be used when absolutely necessary. I tend to only see it used a lot in amateur scripts where they feel the need to direct the conversation way too much.

"Beats" can also mean story beats such as the inciting incident, dramatic question, crisis, climax, etc. Like someone else said, Bruce's parents die before page 20. Obviously, that is major. That would be the inciting incident. The dramatic question is what Bruce does now that he is put in this situation without parents and heir to a corporation. Will he use this power to avenge their deaths? (Yes.)

I would suggest this book. Obsessing about structure too much leads to generic, cookie cutter stories, but it's important to know the rules before you can break the rules.

Seriously, get Vogler's The Writer's Journey. It is much more practical, open-ended and inspiring than Save the Cat. It's based off of the ideas of Joseph Campbell, whose worke inspired Star Wars. It is a much more classic and legitimate structure than Save the Cat, and yet it is a series of guidelines, not hard-pressed rules. Blake Snyder in his book basically says if you deviate from my formula, you suck. The dude even hates Memento.

Or read Lajos Egri's The Art of Dramatic Writing. It seems your problem is that you don't have a defined character with hopes, goals, worst nightmares and biggest weaknesses. That should be the starting point of any script: your character. This book opens you up to finding out what you value about your character and how to build them for dramatic conflict. Its a revelation for someone who hasn't thought of story as character arcs and dramatic progression.