Ask the Pros: Screenwriting

Nobody really knows how many screenplays are written each year. Reports are that some 40,000 scripts may be registered with the Writer's Guild West annually, which suggests many more are started and abandoned. And many have noted that nobody really wants to write the Great American Novel anymore; now everybody wants to write the Next Great Blockbuster (or "tentpole" movie, in the parlance of Hollywood). As William Goldman writes in Adventures of the Screen Trade, when he started screenwriting there were no books or format guides to consult; he had to learn simply by reading other screenplays.

That has changed. First there was Syd Field, whose books on screenwriting format brought clarity and the three act structure to the forefront. Now there are a host of screenwriting websites, magazines, books, gurus, and more, all looking to make a buck off aspiring screenwriters' hopes and dreams. Just writing a screenplay is big business anymore, and there are thousands of people looking for advice and insight into how to break into "the business." They devour Robert McKee's book on Story and they quibble on message boards over whether to bind a script with two brads or three, with every other question seeming to be: "So, do I have to move to L.A. to really hit the big time?"

Ask the Pros: Screenwriting is a fascinating little book. Not because it teaches screenwriting format, because it doesn't. If you want to read about format, there are plenty of books on the market, from the aforementioned (and ubiquitous) Story, David Trottier's Screenwriter's Bible, Denny Martin Flinn's How Not to Write a Screenplay: 101 Common Mistakes Most Screenwriters Make, and The Complete Guide to Standard Script Formats by Judith Haag and Hillis Cole. But Ask the Pros: Screenwriting does something else, something I think is exceptionally valuable for aspiring screenwriters.

It asks professionals - writers, agents, managers, producers, readers, and more - a host of "frequently asked questions," and records their answers. What I really liked about this book was the fact that on many points, there was disagreement among the professionals, or at the very least a difference of opinion about how to go about things. As an aspiring screenwriter who has bounced around the various screenwriting circles online, you frequently hear some "expert" spouting off about how there is only one way to do things. The problem is, many people end up believing that, and it isn't true; as the old saying goes, there's more than one way to skin a cat. And Ask the Pros highlights that fact.

Article Author: Bill Wallo

Bill Wallo is a book and movie junkie.

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