Screenwriting for Dummies

by Laura Schellhardt

Book Overview

Includes all the essentials for writing a screenplay, from crafting dialogue to marketing a script Packed with easy-to-understand guidelines and writing projects, Screenwriting For Dummies makes film writing accessible to novices and helps more experienced writers improve their scripts. This engaging guide walks readers through the essential elements of every good screenplay, from character development, to creating a story, to writing compelling dialogue, to adopting a screenplay from a different source. It also includes all the specific formatting details that go into writing a visual screenplay from scripting character introductions, to writing the camera into the script, to creating a cinematic collage. In addition, Screenwriting For Dummies covers the important task of selling a screenplay, including tips for getting a spec script into the proper marketing format, protecting intellectual property rights, and securing an agent.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0764554867
• ISBN13: 9780764554865
• Release Date: January 2003
• Publisher: For Dummies
• Length: 355 Pages
• Weight: 1.24 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.8" x 7.4" x 9.3"

Customer Reviews

good book. too much information in one book.

I bought it 1 month ago and I haven't finished it yet. it's more of a reference book. I refer to it quite a bit. her writing has flow and easy to understand. I personally don't like "dummies" series but this one is good. I wish she had a CD with it for search and indexing. this book has lots of information, I orginally planned to finish it in a week and I am still reading it. I haven't bought it for actually writing a script but for a project I am working on. probably the best I've seen so for. cheers

Great Help

Screenwriting for Dummies is a very helpfull book. It provides good details with available refrences for its examples. The literature is simple allowing for easy comprehenision. I would recomend this book for the simple fact that it is an easy read and one only has to read the sections that are of interest to him/her.

How to write a script

This book is very helpful. It has lot of tips. Links to web sites. The book explains in detail the most important techniques to be a good screenwriter. In addition, it shows how to submit a script, how to present it and the most important, to whom present it. It is a great book for people interested in begining a screenwriter carrer.

Schellhardt provides clear analysis of structure

Screenwriting for Dummies provides comprehensive information about how to construct a screenplay, from concept to pitch, but its most valuable aspect is Schellhardt's coverage of film structure. She shows the bones of a good screenplay in a manner that doesn't seem so much formulaic as archetypal: a movie starts with its status quo, hits an inciting incident; its protagonist forms a plan of action at plot point one, hits the high or low of his story at the midpoint, renews his efforts at plot point two, and earns his reward, or tragedy, in the conclusion. Schellhardt clued me in to the pattern, and now, when I sense a movie petering out or losing its focus, I have a notion why it happened.Schellhardt also covers outline writing in detail and takes a couple of pages to discuss the purpose and interleaving of subplot, as well as the usual stuff about formatting and marketing. This has not only become my favorite book on screenwriting, but has proven useful in my evolving understanding of plot in fiction.

Very Thorough

Laura Schellhardt, author of the book, spells it all out. I am always daunted when I set out to write a screenplay, but this book allowed me to break down that process into managable tasks. This book covers it all from the pre-writing phases of research, character development, outlines and plot structure to the writing phase of screenplay format, scene development and overall layout and ends with suggestions on how to further develop and revise your work when it is finished and eventually sell it. I recommend this book to anyone, as it covers topics that will make any screenwriter's work (whether beginner or pro) fuller and richer and the process all the more simpler.