Writing Short Stories: The Most Practical Guide

By William H. Phillips

Book Overview

Drawing on years of classroom experience, the author provides guidance for several types of writers: beginners, writers with works in progress, those seeking other writers for critiques, and students in introductory and intermediate writing courses. A special section features three original stories by former students of the author. How does one translate experience into fiction? This work includes specific and practical guidance on the art, craft, and business of writing short stories. It offers advice on exploring sources, galvanizing the imagination, studying stories, and then writing them.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0815629443
• ISBN13: 9780815629443
• Release Date: May 2002
• Publisher: Syracuse University Press
• Length: 208 Pages
• Weight: 0.55 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.4" x 6.2" x 9.0"

Customer Reviews

A Great book focused on Short film development

Phillips' book is one of the best that focuses on development of the Short film. The Short is a script of less than 30 pgs. He is a perpetual "Visiting Professor" at U Wisconsin - Eau Claire, Department of English means that he is free to teach and to consult to industry, but no tenure. His book is unique in that he concentrates on the story development process. A large section of the book contains the full script of 5 shorts; which include two from former film students of his while at Cal State - Stanislaus, and two that have won awards as major film school thesis short films. He includes these short scripts because few are available published or on-line for download. There are three Parts in the book; Getting Started, Example Short Scripts, and Writing Scripts. The book includes an Intro by his mentor Richard Walter at UCLA Film school, an Epilogue, Bibliography, List of Film and Video Shorts, Short Film Distributors, and Index. The most important section is in Part I which includes Nine Writing Exercises, especially #6, #7 and #8. The next most important features of the book are the last two film scripts. This Reviewer has found that "Avenue X (94)" by Leslie McCleave, Dir & Screenplay, had a film trailer on YouTube (aLc2t2Yofrk) and is listed on iMDb (tt0346546). In addition a complete script of "The Resurrection of Broncho Billy (1970, 21min, Universal Studio, a theatre Short opener for 2 yrs)" was produced by USC Film student, John Longenecker, and won an Oscar Short award. YouTube has the complete short (albeit with Italian subtitles) at (WsWQF1H5uSY) + (pqwV_OnoL1g). ======= Part I: Getting Started Chap1 Finding Sources. The best are from personal experience (echo from Richard Walter, UCLA Film screenwriting). p4 If from an idea, then the story becomes an illustrated lecture. p6 Avoid a topic that is too recent as one may not be aware of significance points. p8 "Although your script should begin with an experience you know well, it should never end there. You must transform the experience into a fictional script." p9 Fragments of an autobiography rarely make good scripts. As Hitchcock says, Drama is life with dull parts left out. p9 Thus good screenwriters know to cut, transform and rearrange events, and change and invent characters. They can show us more, in sharper focus (detail and patterns), and more quickly than life itself. p11 Keep a daily Journal, written and recorded while exercising. p12 1) Show people talking and interacting. 2) Show, don't tell; instead of explaining what is funny or sad, write in a way that *is* funny or sad. 3) Use concrete words; not abstract like "beautiful, nice, very, brave." p13 Additional tips on Journal writing and *Types* of writing. This Journal is for your eyes only. 1. Events that stick powerfully in your memory a. argument that changed a relationship you had b. perplexing experience you suffered through c. experience that led to a surprising conclusion d. experience about people that

Phillips de-mystifies creative writing

As a former creative writing student of Dr. Phillips, I can attest that this book is the next best thing to having the man on retainer. Each step of the creative writing process, from brainstorming to final draft and submissions, is de-mystified and broken down into a series of manageable activities. The most important thing he taught me is that writing, like most things worth doing, is simply a matter of frequent practice. Do the work and the muse will come to you! Very highly recommended.

Insightful Book About Short Film Scripts

WRITING SHORT SCRIPTS by William H. Phillips WRITING SHORT SCRIPTS is a very insightful book about writing short scripts. The Author has included his perceptive comments about the structure of short film scripts, and has thankfully included the texts of the short film scripts that he writes about.THE RESURRECTION OF BRONCHO BILLY (1970) is one of the short films included in the book. A number of photos from the film are included as well. "BRONCHO BILLY" is the classic Academy Award Winning live action short film starring JOHNNY CRAWFORD and KRISTIN NELSON. JOHN CARPENTER created the Original Music and was the film editor. NICK CASTLE was the Cinematographer. It is shot like a classic western, but the setting is the big city in present time. The hero dreams of being a cowboy, and actually rides off into the sunset with the girl. It is a movie, with some cinematic wonderful license.The entire shooting script is included in the book. It is simple, straight forward, and it includes JOHNNY CRAWFORD'S improvised dialogue from the famous "Park Bench Scene" with KRISTIN NELSON, where he goes on about John Wayne, and Gary Cooper, and when asked if he has a horse, says: "Well, not all cowboys have their own horse."THE RESURRECTION OF BRONCHO BILLY (1970) was released by Universal Studios, to motion picture theaters across the U.S. and Canada for 104 weeks, and holds the record as the most financially successful live action short film in the history of the studio. Ironically, as the book tells us, the filmmakers were all just starting out on their motion picture careers and were attending classes at the Cinema Department at the University of Southern California at the time they made the picture. That is inspiring for young filmmakers everywhere.If you are interested in short films, this book includes details about "BRONCHO BILLY" and several other excellent short films as a reference on short film script writing. If you may write a short film yourself, this is one book that you should own and read.