Today’s theme in the 2011 WordCount Blogathon is on writing books and it’s been a while since I read books on writing but the last book was a reference book and a television script writing book. So, here are my top 5 screenwriting books that I selected....either because I already read them in school and they were useful so I favor them or because I read them in whole or in part but have nothing else to compare them to.
They are in no particular order and all of them are not 100% scripts from cover to cover, since I do not remember all of the books that I read nor can I find all of the books that I have merely on the subject of writing.....so the following list will have to do.
1. Writing Television Sitcoms by Evan S. Smith
This book was nice to read a few years ago when I considered submitting a spec script based on “The King of Queens” starring Kevin James, for a chance to participate in a television writing fellowship or apprenticeship or something of the sort that ABC had available at the time. Even though this TV show was on CBS, I believe that hopeful television writers were allowed to submit a script for any sitcom, so long as it was still on-air. I ended up not writing the script completely nor applying to the program but this book helped me learn a thing or two about scenes, characters and dialogue for funny TV shows.
2. Video Scriptwriting: How to Write for the $4 Billion Video Commercial Market by Barry Hampe
I read this book a few times and it has been a useful resource for creating scripts that are used for television commercials, instructional videos, corporate videos and infommercials. It covers different parts of the scriptwriting process such as writing treatments, writing a synopsis and script research.
3. 2008 Writer’s Market
I purchased this book to find freelance writing markets but the screenwriting and playwriting sections have also been nice to read through. I may not have bought the book if it did not have these sections but I’ve paid more attention to the periodical listings in there since payment for freelance articles from a magazine comes a lot quicker than payment for a script option or buyout. Still, it has useful information on writing queries, which is important no matter what is being pitched.....a magazine article or a screenplay.
4. $30 Film School by Michael W. Dean
Yeah, this book is not entirely dedicated to screenwriting but it has an extensive chapter that focuses on the topic. It’s more technical than some others, covering things like script assembly with brads, etc. but does touch on outlining, story structure, dialogue and creating action.
5. The Ultimate Fimmaker’s Guide to Short Films by Kim Aldeman
I’ve made more short movies than feature films. In fact, I’ve only made short films up until this point while trying to get one of my feature film scripts into production, so this book has been useful. There is a section called “From Concept to Blueprint” that covers the scripting process and the author stresses that simplicity is important and to think about the resources that are already available when creating the story for a short film.
So, there you have it! My top 5 Books on Screenwriting, or writing for the screen!
Disclaimer: After writing this post and visiting Michelle Rafter's (the WordCount Blogathon host) website, I seem to have been mistaken regarding the theme, which actually seems to be just "Top 5 Books" and not "Top 5 Writing Books." Oh well. Live and learn, live and learn!
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