Top Screenwriting Books

Joe Eszterhas had everything Hollywood could offer. A combination of insider and rebel, he saw and participated in the fights, the deals, the backstabbing, and all the sex and drugs. But here, in his candid and heartwrenching memoir, we see the rest of the story: the inspiring ac account of the child of Hungarian immigrants who, against all odds, grows up to live the American Dream. Hollywood Animal reveals the trajectory of Eszterhas's life in gripping detail, from his childhood in a refugee camp, to his battle with a devastating cancer. It shows how a struggling journalist became the most successful screenwriter of all time, and how a man who had access to the most beautiful women in Hollywood ultimately chose to live with the love of his life in a small town in Ohio. Above all, it is the story of a father and a son, and the turbulent relationship that was an unending cycle of heartbreak. Hollywood Animal is an enthralling, provocative memoir: a moving celebration of the human spirit. http://www.amazon.com/dp/0375718958 (less) … (more)

Screenplay is one of the bibles of the film trade and has launched many a would-be screenwriter on the road to Hollywood. This third edition is updated to include the specifics of writing via computer.Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc. http://www.amazon.com/dp/0385339038

"As hard as it is to write a good screenplay, it's still only half the game. What's in this book is the other half- and to ignore it is to risk being eaten alive." A Tedious Read? Nope! - 9 Stars! (Jeff Arch, Screenwriter) "The Screenwriter's Legal Guide" is chock-full of examp le documents that you may encounter in your screenwriting career. In "Protecting Your Money" there is a sample escrow agreement. In "Commissioned Screenplays" you get a certificate of authorship agreement. In "Agreements: Other Provisions to Watch Out For" are typical representations and warranties provision as well as article 28 of the WGA. Whenever the author discusses a type of agreement, sample of that agreement is provided. Overall - 9 Stars! "The Screenwriter's Legal Guide" covers just about everything you'll ever encounter in this business as a screenwriter. You'll be able to protect yourself on the legal side of this business with this handy, informative guide. Read this book, so you can protect yourself as a writer. http://www.amazon.com/dp/158115352X (less) … (more)

After 31 years in the Hollywood trenches and 15 films including Flashdance, Basic Instinct and Showgirls, screenwriter Eszterhas delivers a dishy, catty mix of reminiscences and Hollywood trivia in the guise of a handbook for wannabe screenwriters. Writing in a format perfect for readers with ADD, Eszterhas offers hundreds of instructive epigraphs, each an excuse for a short, gossipy paragraph. He includes a smattering of basic advice (avoid having your ideas ripped off by going to pitch meetings with a witness), warnings about producers, agents, directors and actors ("The word star is rats spelled backwards"), self-aggrandizing tales of wheeling and dealing, and tangents about various sexcapades (his own and other screenwriters'). He doesn't stint on snide comments about people he's worked with, like Sharon Stone, or about those he's refused to work with, like Michael Ovitz. Eszterhas includes fun quotes from Hollywood legends like Ben Hecht and Raymond Chandler and his fellow Hungarian, Zsa Zsa Gabor, but his forte is skewering sycophants and phonies in this opinionated showcase of the underside of Hollywood life. (Sept.) Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. http://www.amazon.com/dp/0312373848 (less) … (more)

"A feast of information that addresses every conceivable issue with clarity and insight. It deserves a place in every serious screenwriter's library."-Richard Walter, chairman, UCLA screenwriting programThe Complete Screenwriter's Manual is the most complete and comprehensive pre sentation of screenplay format and style on the market. Written by an author team with extensive professional and academic credentials and based on a unique step-by-step approach, this book features: A systematic approach to formatting a screenplay An accessible style beginners can easily grasp Accurate information on current industry practices Methods for creating professional-looking scripts Illustrations of common problems and their solutions Cross-referenced index http://www.amazon.com/dp/0321397932 (less) … (more)

Updated for today's screenwriting market. This popular guide includes even more insider advice on the craft and business of screenwriting. From picking a winning idea to packaging a new script for sale, this updated edition offers tips and tricks for every stage of the process, as well as new information on digital video, writing video games, new resources for staged readings, tips on collaboration, and a primer for pitching a project. Also included is a chapter on writing for television. http://www.amazon.com/dp/1592572251 (less) … (more)

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http://www.amazon.com/dp/0446391174

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! http://www.amazon.com/dp/1932907009

Working writer/producer Straczynski has revised his 1981 text -- a standard in many institutions -- and brought it into the '90s, with updates on fluctuating markets, speculation about opportunities in CD-ROMs and anecdotage about Writers' Guild strikes that have occurred in the interval. A handy tome for the novice, since Straczynski covers much basic ground in key areas of writing for film, television, radio, animation and stage. Strongest in the movie/TV areas and also valuable for animation scribes, playwrights might note that their chapter is the thinnest; perhaps it was all apportioned according to what the various disciplines pay? http://www.amazon.com/dp/1582971587 (less) … (more)

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. http://www.amazon.com/dp/0764554867 (less) … (more)

Aspiring screenwriters don't need another book on how to write a screenplay, says Karl Iglesias. What they need is a book on how to be a screenwriter. Voilà: The 101 Habits of Highly Successful Screenwriters, featuring interviews with 14 screenwriters, arranged by subject. The re esult reads like a panel discussion, touching on such subjects as collaboration, schmoozing, discipline, Hollywood, and story pitching. The dream of winning a Hollywood jackpot has lured everyone and his gardener into the screenwriting game. Still, despite the unencouraging odds, "all you need to do is write a good script," says Scott Rosenberg (Beautiful Girls). Some of the book's best advice concerns one of the screenwriter's most formidable hurdles: getting a screenplay read. Submit it to film festivals and screenwriting competitions, or follow Tom Schulman's (Dead Poet's Society) advice and hire an entertainment attorney. After all, "most of them know a lot of agents." --Jane Steinberg http://www.amazon.com/dp/1580625509 (less) … (more)

http://www.amazon.com/dp/0898799740

Writing for the screen is quirky business. A writer must labor meticulously over his or her prose, yet very little of that prose is ever heard by filmgoers. The few words that do reach the audience, in the form of the characters' dialogue, are, according to Robert McKee, best lef t to last in the writing process. ("As Alfred Hitchcock once remarked, 'When the screenplay has been written and the dialogue has been added, we're ready to shoot.' ") In Story, McKee puts into book form what he has been teaching screenwriters for years in his seminar on story structure, which is considered by many to be a prerequisite to the film biz. (The long list of film and television projects that McKee's students have written, directed, or produced includes Air Force One, The Deer Hunter, E.R., A Fish Called Wanda, Forrest Gump, NYPD Blue, and Sleepless in Seattle.) Legions of writers flock to Hollywood in search of easy money, calculating the best way to get rich quick. This book is not for them. McKee is passionate about the art of screenwriting. "No one needs yet another recipe book on how to reheat Hollywood leftovers," he writes. "We need a rediscovery of the underlying tenets of our art, the guiding principles that liberate talent." Story is a true path to just such a rediscovery. In it, McKee offers so much sound advice, drawing from sources as wide ranging as Aristotle and Casablanca, Stanislavski and Chinatown, that it is impossible not to come away feeling immeasurably better equipped to write a screenplay and infinitely more inspired to write a brilliant one.--Jane Steinberg http://www.amazon.com/dp/0060391685 (less) … (more)

No book can find your ideas for you, but this one provides a great service in helping you discover and develop a story, and to come up with the completed script. King helps you learn to think cinematically, in the language of the movies, and to keep asking the essential questions as they work: What's the story? Who is the story about? Do you care about the characters? Does anyone? King also tries to help you survive not just the structural pitfalls that can derail a script, but also the mental or emotional whirlpools that can prevent any artist from finishing a project. http://www.amazon.com/dp/0062730665 (less) … (more)