The potentially long and arduous journey of writing a screenplay was just made easier to navigate with The Screenwriter's Roadmap. This book keeps you on track and helps you to write a finished, professional quality screenplay. Neil Landau provides you with 21 Guideposts that will help you nail down your screenplay's story structure, deepen its character arcs, bolster stakes, heighten suspense and diagnose and repair its potential weaknesses. The Guideposts are augmented by interactive exercises, end of chapter "homework" assignments, examples from the latest blockbusters and over 20 interviews with some of Hollywood's most successful screenwriters and directors.

Finally, a GPS system for screenwriters! The potentially long and arduous journey of writing a screenplay was just made easier to navigate with The Screenwriter's Roadmap. Avoid the wrong turns, dead ends, gaping p(l)otholes, and other obstacles that result in frustration , wasted time, and wasted energy. The Screenwriter's Roadmap keeps you on track and helps you reach your destination- a finished, professional quality screenplay. Neil Landau, a successful Hollywood screenwriter and script doctor with over 2 decades of experience, provides you with 21 Guideposts, that if implemented, will help you nail down your screenplay's story structure, deepen its character arcs, bolster stakes, heighten suspense, and diagnose and repair its potential weaknesses. These Guideposts are based on field-tested, in-the-trenches experiences that have been proven to work. The Guideposts are augmented by interactive exercises, end of chapter "homework" assignments, examples from the latest blockbusters, as well as over 20 interviews with some of Hollywood's most successful screenwriters and directors, including David S. Goyer (Batman Begins, The Dark Knight, The Dark Knight Rises, Man of Steel), David Koepp (Jurassic Park, Mission: Impossible, Spider-Man, Panic Room, War of the Worlds, Angels & Demons), Melissa Rosenberg (The Twilight Saga: Twilight, The Twilight Saga: New Moon, The Twilight Saga: Eclipse, The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn - Part 1, The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn - Part 2, Dexter (TV)), and Eric Roth (Forrest Gump, The Insider, Munich, The Good Shepherd, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close). .

In The Screenwriters Taxonomy, award-winning screenwriter and educator Eric R. Williams offers a new collaborative approach for creative storytellers to recognize, discuss and reinvent storytelling paradigms. Williams presents seven different aspects of storytelling that can be applied to any fictional narrative film—from super genre, macrogenre and microgenre to voice and point of view—allowing writers to analyze existing films and innovate on these structures in their own stories. Moving beyond film theory, Williams describes how this roadmap for creative decision making can relate to classics like Sunset Boulevard, The Wizard of Oz and Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid as well as such diverse modern favorites like 12 Years a Slave, Anomalisa and Shrek.

If you’ve ever dreamed of being in charge of your own network, cable, or web series, then this is the book for you. The TV Showrunner’s Roadmap provides you with the tools for creating, writing, and managing your own hit show. Combining his 20+ years as a working screenwriter and UCLA professor, Neil Landau expertly guides you through 21 essential insights to the creation of a successful show, and takes you behind the scenes with exclusive and enlightening interviews with showrunners from some of TV’s most lauded series, including: Breaking Bad Homeland Scandal Modern Family The Walking Dead Once Upon a Time Lost House, M.D. Friday Night Lights The Good Wife From conception to final rewrite, The TV Showrunner’s Roadmap is an invaluable resource for anyone seeking to create a series that won’t run out of steam after the first few episodes. This groundbreaking guide features a companion website with additional interviews and bonus materials. www.focalpress.com/cw/landau So grab your laptop, dig out that stalled spec script, and buckle up. Welcome to the fast lane.

Finally, a GPS system for screenwriters! The potentially long and arduous journey of writing a screenplay was just made easier to navigate with The Screenwriter's Roadmap. Avoid the wrong turns, dead ends, gaping p(l)otholes, and other obstacles that result in frustration , wasted time, and wasted energy. The Screenwriter's Roadmap keeps you on track and helps you reach your destination- a finished, professional quality screenplay. Neil Landau, a successful Hollywood screenwriter and script doctor with over 2 decades of experience, provides you with 21 Guideposts, that if implemented, will help you nail down your screenplay's story structure, deepen its character arcs, bolster stakes, heighten suspense, and diagnose and repair its potential weaknesses. These Guideposts are based on field-tested, in-the-trenches experiences that have been proven to work. The Guideposts are augmented by interactive exercises, end of chapter "homework" assignments, examples from the latest blockbusters, as well as over 20 interviews with some of Hollywood's most successful screenwriters and directors, including David S. Goyer (Batman Begins, The Dark Knight, The Dark Knight Rises, Man of Steel), David Koepp (Jurassic Park, Mission: Impossible, Spider-Man, Panic Room, War of the Worlds, Angels & Demons), Melissa Rosenberg (The Twilight Saga: Twilight, The Twilight Saga: New Moon, The Twilight Saga: Eclipse, The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn - Part 1, The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn - Part 2, Dexter (TV)), and Eric Roth (Forrest Gump, The Insider, Munich, The Good Shepherd, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close). .

Hotel Rwanda. Philadelphia. Silkwood. Some of the most important films ever made have tackled real-world social issues, from genocide to homophobia to corporate greed. As storytellers, activist screenwriters recognize that social issues make great stories that can be gut-wrenching, heart-tugging, funny, tragic, and interesting to watch. The Screenwriter Activist helps screenwriters tell those stories in compelling, non-preachy, and inspiring ways. The Screenwriter Activist is an in-depth, practical guide, appropriate for students in intermediate or graduate screenwriting courses in Film and English Programs as well as professionals who want to write a movie that can make a difference in the world. Using examples from classic and recent popular films, The Screenwriter Activist: Explores the motivation and sensibility a screenwriter needs to embark on a social issue project Gives techniques for choosing compelling subjects Provides historical context for social issue movies Explains how characters legitimize social issue themes Puts forward specific models for structuring advocacy screenplays Lays out a roadmap for how screenwriters can get a social issue movie made If you care deeply about social issues and recognize that films can be highly effective platforms for motivativng audiences to civic involvement and social action, this is the one screenwriting book you need to read.

Breaking In: Tales from the Screenwriting Trenches is a no-nonsense, boots-on-the-ground exploration of how writers REALLY go from emerging to professional in today’s highly saturated and competitive screenwriting space. With a focus on writers who have gotten representation and broken into the TV or feature film space after the critical 2008 WGA strike and financial market collapse, the reader will learn from tangible examples of how success was achieved via hard work and specific methodology. This book includes interviews from writers who wrote major studio releases (The Boy Next Door), staffed on television shows (American Crime, NCIS New Orleans, Sleepy Hollow), sold specs and television shows, placed in competitions, and were accepted to prestigious network and studio writing programs. These interviews are presented as Screenwriter Spotlights throughout the book and are supported by insight from top-selling agents and managers (including those who have sold scripts and pilots, had their writers named to prestigious lists such as The Black List and The Hit List) as well as working industry executives. Together, these anecdotes, learnings and perceptions, tied in with the author's extensive experience in and knowledge of the industry, will inform the reader about how the industry REALLY works, what it expects from both working and emerging writers, as well as what next steps the writer should engage in, in order to move their screenwriting career forward.

This ultimate insider's guide reveals the secrets that none dare admit, told by a show biz veteran who's proven that you can sell your script if you can save the cat!

Screenwriting for Neurotics is a quirky and accessible handbook for beginning screenwriters. Whether you are a student in a screenwriting class or just someone who wants to try their hand at writing for film or television, this handy guidebook makes the entire process simple and unintimidating. Scott Winfield Sublett, a veteran screenwriter and screenwriting teacher, walks you step by step from start to finish and helps you navigate potential and unforeseen difficulties along the way, offering handy tips and suggestions to keep you from becoming blocked or stalled. Rather than throwing you into the writing process headfirst, Sublett guides you through the various decisions you need to make—about plot, character, structure, conflict—in the order you need to make them. He explains in straightforward terms the terminology and jargon, the theory and industry standards, and dispels common myths about screenwriting that can discourage or hold back a beginning writer. Balancing theory and practice and offering valuable and insightful examples from recognizable and well-known classic and contemporary films, ranging from Casablanca to A Christmas Story to Clerks, Sublett provides the new writer with the necessary tools to successfully write a feature-length screenplay and offers a roadmap of where to go next. With an emphasis on helping a writer not just to begin, but also to finish a script, Screenwriting for Neurotics is the screenwriting book to help you actually write one.

John Truby is one of the most respected and sought-after story consultants in the film industry, and his students have gone on to pen some of Hollywood's most successful films, including Sleepless in Seattle, Scream, and Shrek. The Anatomy of Story is his long-awaited first book, and it shares all of his secrets for writing a compelling script. Based on the lessons in his award-winning class, Great Screenwriting, The Anatomy of Story draws on a broad range of philosophy and mythology, offering fresh techniques and insightful anecdotes alongside Truby's own unique approach for how to build an effective, multifaceted narrative. Truby's method for constructing a story is at once insightful and practical, focusing on the hero's moral and emotional growth. As a result, writers will dig deep within and explore their own values and worldviews in order to create an effective story. Writers will come away with an extremely precise set of tools to work with—specific, useful techniques to make the audience care about their characters, and that make their characters grow in meaningful ways. They will construct a surprising plot that is unique to their particular concept, and they will learn how to express a moral vision that can genuinely move an audience. The foundations of story that Truby lays out are so fundamental they are applicable—and essential—to all writers, from novelists and short-story writers to journalists, memoirists, and writers of narrative non-fiction.