Character drives plot. Based on this principle, this book walks aspiring writers through the fascinating world of character-driven screenwriting. When a writer engages their characters, they start a process which naturally leads to the story’s structure and everything else that makes for a well-written narrative. Exploring the protagonist’s journey and their “unity arc,” Myers explains how a family of characters surrounds the protagonist and influences their transformation process. This easy-to-follow guide features activities that will help writers of any level develop their stories from concept to scene-by-scene outline. Based upon a popular workshop Myers has led with over a thousand writers at all levels of experience, this book is a must-have for screenwriting students, both undergraduate and graduate, and those looking at advanced story development.

The Newberry Medalist brings humor and heart to this story of a Civil War–era boy struggling to do right in the face of history’s cruelest evils. Twelve-year-old Charlie is down on his luck: His sharecropper father just died, and Cap’n Buck—the most fearsome man in Possum Moan, South Carolina—has come to collect a debt. Fearing for his life, Charlie strikes a deal with Cap’n Buck and agrees to track down some folks accused of stealing from the cap’n and his boss. It’s not too bad of a bargain for Charlie . . . until he comes face-to-face with the fugitives and discovers their true identities. Torn between his guilty conscience and his survival instinct, Charlie needs to figure out his next move—and soon. It’s only a matter of time before Cap’n Buck catches on. Praise for The Journey of Little Charlie A National Book Award Finalist “This is a compelling and ugly story for middle-grade readers told with genuine care. Little Charlie is a product of his Southern upbringing, yet in Curtis’s skillful hands he learns the world is not as he’d thought . . . Christopher Paul Curtis does it again.” —Historical Novel Society “A characteristically lively and complex addition to the historical fiction of the era from Curtis.” —Kirkus Reviews

For over six years, The Woman in the Story has been the go-to resource for writers who want to be gender-mindful when they figure how to create female characters. Inspired by female psychology and gender issues, this how-to book casts a refreshingly honest and empowering women-centric light on every stage of the screenwriting process.

World-renowned folklorist Maria Tatar reveals an astonishing but long-buried history of heroines, taking us from Cassandra and Scheherazade to Nancy Drew and Wonder Woman. The Heroine with 1,001 Faces dismantles the cult of warrior heroes, revealing a secret history of heroinism at the very heart of our collective cultural imagination. Maria Tatar, a leading authority on fairy tales and folklore, explores how heroines, rarely wielding a sword and often deprived of a pen, have flown beneath the radar even as they have been bent on redemptive missions. Deploying the domestic crafts and using words as weapons, they have found ways to survive assaults and rescue others from harm, all while repairing the fraying edges in the fabric of their social worlds. Like the tongueless Philomela, who spins the tale of her rape into a tapestry, or Arachne, who portrays the misdeeds of the gods, they have discovered instruments for securing fairness in the storytelling circles where so-called women’s work—spinning, mending, and weaving—is carried out. Tatar challenges the canonical models of heroism in Joseph Campbell’s The Hero with a Thousand Faces, with their male-centric emphases on achieving glory and immortality. Finding the women missing from his account and defining their own heroic trajectories is no easy task, for Campbell created the playbook for Hollywood directors. Audiences around the world have willingly surrendered to the lure of quest narratives and charismatic heroes. Whether in the form of Frodo, Luke Skywalker, or Harry Potter, Campbell’s archetypical hero has dominated more than the box office. In a broad-ranging volume that moves with ease from the local to the global, Tatar demonstrates how our new heroines wear their curiosity as a badge of honor rather than a mark of shame, and how their “mischief making” evidences compassion and concern. From Bluebeard’s wife to Nancy Drew, and from Jane Eyre to Janie Crawford, women have long crafted stories to broadcast offenses in the pursuit of social justice. Girls, too, have now precociously stepped up to the plate, with Hermione Granger, Katniss Everdeen, and Starr Carter as trickster figures enacting their own forms of extrajudicial justice. Their quests may not take the traditional form of a “hero’s journey,” but they reveal the value of courage, defiance, and, above all, care. “By turns dazzling and chilling” (Ruth Franklin), The Heroine with 1,001 Faces creates a luminous arc that takes us from ancient times to the present day. It casts an unusually wide net, expanding the canon and thinking capaciously in global terms, breaking down the boundaries of genre, and displaying a sovereign command of cultural context. This, then, is a historic volume that informs our present and its newfound investment in empathy and social justice like no other work of recent cultural history.

Following on the heels of Lisa Cron's breakout first book, Wired for Story, this writing guide reveals how to use cognitive storytelling strategies to build a scene-by-scene blueprint for a riveting story. It’s every novelist’s greatest fear: pouring their blood, sweat, and tears into writing hundreds of pages only to realize that their story has no sense of urgency, no internal logic, and so is a page one rewrite. The prevailing wisdom in the writing community is that there are just two ways around this problem: pantsing (winging it) and plotting (focusing on the external plot). Story coach Lisa Cron has spent her career discovering why these methods don’t work and coming up with a powerful alternative, based on the science behind what our brains are wired to crave in every story we read (and it’s not what you think). In Story Genius Cron takes you, step-by-step, through the creation of a novel from the first glimmer of an idea, to a complete multilayered blueprint—including fully realized scenes—that evolves into a first draft with the authority, richness, and command of a riveting sixth or seventh draft.

The Writer's Journey is an insider's guide to how master storytellers from Hitchcock to Spielberg have used mythic structure to create powerful stories. This new edition includes analyses of latest releases such as The Full Monty.

An analysis of the fundamental narrative structure, why it works, the meanings of stories, and why we tell them in the first place. The idea of Into the Woods is not to supplant works by Aristotle, Lajos Egri, Robert McKee, David Mamet, or any other writers of guides for screenwriters and playwrights, but to pick up on their cues and take the reader on a historical, philosophical, scientific, and psychological journey to the heart of all storytelling. In this exciting and wholly original book, John Yorke not only shows that there is truly a unifying shape to narrative—one that echoes the great fairytale journey into the woods, and one, like any great art, that comes from deep within—he explains why, too. With examples ranging from The Godfather to True Detective, Mad Men to Macbeth, and fairy tales to Forbrydelsen (The Killing), Yorke utilizes Shakespearean five-act structure as a key to analyzing all storytelling in all narrative forms, from film and television to theatre and novel-writing—a big step from the usual three-act approach. Into the Woods: A Five-Act Journey into Story is destined to sit alongside David Mamet’s Three Uses of the Knife, Robert McKee’s Story, Syd Field’s Screenplay, and Lajos Egri’s The Art of Dramatic Writing as one of the most original, useful, and inspiring books ever on dramatic writing. Praise for Into the Woods “Love storytelling? You need this inspiring book. John Yorke dissects the structure of stories with a joyous enthusiasm allied to precise, encyclopedic knowledge. Guaranteed to send you back to your writing desk with newfound excitement and drive.” —Chris Chibnall, creator/writer, Broadchurch and Gracepoint “Outrageously good and by far and away the best book of its kind I’ve ever read. I recognized so much truth in it. But more than that, I learned a great deal. Time and again, Yorke articulates things I’ve always felt but have never been able to describe. . . . This is a love story to story—erudite, witty and full of practical magic. I struggle to think of the writer who wouldn’t benefit from reading it—even if they don’t notice because they’re too busy enjoying every page.” —Neil Cross, creator/writer, Luther and Crossbones “Part ‘how-to’ manual, part ‘why-to’ celebration, Into the Woods is a wide-reaching and infectiously passionate exploration of storytelling in all its guises . . . exciting and thought-provoking.” —Emma Frost, screenwriter, The White Queen and Shameless

Joseph Campbell, arguably the greatest mythologist of our time, was certainly one of our greatest storytellers.

Dating Your Character: A Sexy Guide to Screenwriting for Film and TV is based on the principle that interesting characters actually are co-creators in the writing process. It's organized into some of the standard stages in an evolving, romantic relationship, launched by a couple of chapters that encourage you to take some personal inventory: - Casting Your Ideal Character - The Meet Cute - The First Date - Serious Dating - Moving In Together - The First Fight - Making A Commitment - Hitched Or Ditched On the way to a kind of trust and growing intimacy, the structure of the book traces the first flush of excitement, any awkward hiccups in communication, and the recognition and reconciliation of your different POVs. Most books approach character development using a winnowing process involving general categorization and list-making. But, not much in the way of a truly in-depth synthesis of the collage of "facts" in the character's biography. The DYC method doesn't start from the outside in. It doesn't layer physical descriptions onto archetypal outlines, then color in the flaws and motivation to make that thumbnail sketch more personal. DYC focuses on the importance of the individuality of characters: their eccentricity, drive, and relative "basis in fact" - inspired in part by people you know or you yourself.

An Adult Coloring Book for Authors!This book will help you paint powerful visual scenes that stick with readers long after they're finished your book. The techniques described within are simple and easy to use. Think of this as a guided coloring book adventure. YOUR adventure.There are lots of systems and guides to plotting, but if you're like me you have journals filled with notes, scenes and description... it can get overwhelming. I've based this book on traditional three-act story architecture, but it's greatly simplified. Plotters and pantsers can use the guided exercises to gain greater visual clarity and build more meaningful scenes with resonance. This book will help you get organized and unlock hidden potential in your scenes that you didn't know was there, by going beyond words and focusing on drawing and coloring your scenes until you have a full outline.This book makes an excellent workbook for writing retreats, is simple enough for children to use (it's never too early to write your first novel), and introduces a new, and hopefully useful, way to organize your novel, improve your writing, and create unforgettable scenes that will make a deep and lasting impact.