Writing Treatments That Sell, Second Edition: How to Create and Market Your Story Ideas to the Motion Picture and TV Industry

by Chi-Li Wong and Kenneth Atchity

Book Overview

A fully revised guide to turning your movie idea into a treatment that can persuade even the most jaded movie producers

As Hollywood insiders know, the first step in selling your story idea for film or television is preparing a treatment, the brief pitch that sells the concept to a busy producer or agent. Now including updates on the latest trends in the industry, writers-producers Kenneth Atchity and Chi-Li Wong tell readers everything...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0805072780
• ISBN13: 9780805072785
• Release Date: February 2003
• Publisher: Holt McDougal
• Length: 272 Pages
• Weight: 0.60 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.7" x 5.5" x 8.3"

Customer Reviews

The Only Book You'll Ever Need!

If you possess writing talent and want to break into TV and Motion Picture Industry, "Writing Treatments that Sell" is the only book you will ever need. No, the book won't help you actually sell your story, but it will help you understand the industry, its needs and prepare you to submit a project that will garner serious consideration. "Writing Treatments that Sell" helps you to see your own project from the perspective of the Development Director and guides you through the steps necessary to shape your product from that point of view. As a writer, I became so intimately involved with my project that I forget the point of the story and was unable to communicate what the story was about because I no longer knew myself. Often times, while writing, it's so easy to get bogged down in the muck and mire and lose the point of the story. "Writing Treatments That Sell" helped me focus on the "meat" of the story. The ideas put forth in the book allowed me to lose sight of myself and become an objective reader of my own story. "Writing Treatments That Sell" helped me set up a road-map in an effort to take my story from point A to Point B without losing the flavor. If anyone has ever asked you what your story, novel or script is about and you can't tell them in one or two lines, then "Writing Treatments that Sell" is the book for you. Not only will you be able to convince the buyer your story is worthy of production, you will also convince yourself that the story is a cut above the rest.

Great tool, already put it to use!

I just finished this book about four days ago, and I've already completed my first treatment, in my case a television series "bible." This book gave me a lot of insights, and I'm quite satisfied. It's short, easy to read, direct and practical. There's even a section at the end about copyrighting and legal issues, which is very helpful and will come in handy for the next part of the process that awaits me. By the way, a previous reviewer mentioned that this book deserves four stars instead of five because a sample treatment for big-screen movies wasn't included. In actuality, a sample television movie treatment was included. All you have to do is change the seven-act structure used for television movies into the three-act structure used for big-screen movies and that TV movie sample treatment can also be used as a sample treatment for a big-screen movie.

This is my text book.

I've read four books on the subject and this is the one I found most helpful. I referred to it constantly and used it as a text book while I was writing my first TV treatment.

A MUST for FIMLERS

This book is a gem. It was recommended by a fellow writer and it basically walked me through the process of writing the treatment for my novel. I look forward to using it again and again. It was informative and gave resources that are invaluable. They need to give seminars!

Buy this book!

As a screenwriting instructor, students are constantly asking me the "secrets" of writing a treatment and making a million in Hollywood. FINALLY, I have a book to hand them that answers all their questions! This is an excellent resource for all aspiring screenwriters as well as instructors in need of content-rich reference material.