How to Write: A Screenplay
Adult/High School–This is one of the best books available for aspiring screenwriters. What makes it so useful for novices is that it follows the cardinal rule Show, Don't Tell. Instead of explaining how to write a script, the book is one. The characters illustrate the craft through an action-adventure story in which Danny, a young writer, is trying to score a tryst with a sexy actress. Bebe La Rue denies him any action until he writes a hot script for her to star in. Enter Virgil, mystery man and screenwriting guru, who takes Danny to the netherworld, where they encounter ghouls, zombies, and giant slugs while exploring concepts like story structure and dramatic conflict. The book makes it clear that writing movie scripts is much harder, and takes much more strategy and expertise, than most people think. Students with dreams of winning the next Project Greenlight contest will leap ahead of the competition by learning the concepts presented in this volume. If their goal is to sell to Hollywood, this book shows them other items frequently requested by producers and agents during the pitching process: the script logline, synposis, and treatment. There's also information about how to copyright and register finished work.–Lois Kirkpatrick, Fairfax County Public Library ,VACopyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.