Review: Definitely worthwhile
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 07 30, 2011
Sokoloff covers Story Structure (three acts, eight sequences), Story Breakdowns, and The Business.  Her workbook approach is based on developing your own Writer's Notebook, with lists of favorite movies/openings/endings, etc., and why they work for you.  I'm not very good at that sort of thing, not patient enough, perhaps, but her suggestions are sound.As the title suggests, much of the book is based on the analysis of various movies, used to illustrate all aspects of story structure.  Most of the examples I have seen, and her descriptions are make even unfamiliar films useful.  One of her favorite examples is Chinatown, which I haven't seen in a very long time--I was inspired to track down a copy at Half-Price Books.  She includes a sort of viewer's guide for the movies she analyzes in detail, giving the timing for important points.When I looked up the book for this review, I discovered that Sokoloff has issued a second collection:  Writing Love, Screenwriting Tricks for Authors II, with the emphasis on romance.  I write romance, soI downloaded it immediately.  I suspect it covers much the same territory with different examples, but for $2.99, how far wrong can you go?