The Way Of The Screenwriter

A story is a living thing. And you don't work on a living thing, you work with it. This is the way of the screenwriter, and it is something that writer and director Amnon Buchbinder believes all masterful screenwriters understand intuitively: learning how to work with story through a painstaking process of trial, error, and self exploration. Amnon Buchbinder draws on his knowledge as a teacher and his experience as a script doctor and a story editor to explore this creative process. Along the way he illustrates principles often inspired by the philosophy of Laozi (Lao Tze) with examples drawn from major motion pictures such as Memento and The Piano. For the beginning or seasoned screenwriter who aspires to more than mere competence, Buchbinder illuminates a path towards mastery of the craft. For the lover of the cinematic experience, he opens a curtain to reveal a rarely seen world behind the big screen.

Such is the Way of the screenwriter; and here is a guide to accompany you along the path that all masterful screenwriters have discovered intuitively. This is much more than a "how-to" manual; it illuminates the why behind the how, treating screenwriting as the convergence of storytelling, writing and filmmaking. In this demanding field, competence is not enough. Using principles inspired by the philosophy of Laozi (Lao Tzu), Amnon Buchbinder draws on his knowledge as a teacher and his experience as a director, screenwriter and script doctor to point a way towards mastery.

From Charles Johnson—a National Book Award winner, Professor Emeritus at University of Washington, and one of America’s preeminent scholars on literature and race—comes an instructive, inspiring guide to the craft and art of writing. An award-winning novelist, philosopher, essayist, screenwriter, professor, and cartoonist, Charles Johnson has devoted his life to creative pursuit. His 1990 National Book Award-winning novel Middle Passage is a modern classic, revered as much for its daring plot as its philosophical underpinnings. For thirty-three years, Johnson taught and mentored students in the art and craft of creative writing. The Way of the Writer is his record of those years, and the coda to a kaleidoscopic, boundary-shattering career. Organized into six accessible, easy-to-navigate sections, The Way of the Writer is both a literary reflection on the creative impulse and a utilitarian guide to the writing process. Johnson shares his lessons and exercises from the classroom, starting with word choice, sentence structure, and narrative voice, and delving into the mechanics of scene, dialogue, plot and storytelling before exploring the larger questions at stake for the serious writer. What separates literature from industrial fiction? What lies at the heart of the creative impulse? How does one navigate the literary world? And how are philosophy and fiction concomitant? Luminous, inspiring, and imminently accessible, The Way of the Writer is a revelatory glimpse into the mind of the writer and an essential guide for anyone with a story to tell.

You want to be a screenwriter. You've read all the screenwriting books. But you're left wanting more. Here is a fresh book written by a screenwriter who has spent years in the trenches.T hat's Not The Way It Works is a no holds barred look at the craft and business of screenwriting, told in a "let's sit down and chat over a cup (or pot) of coffee" manner. So grab a cup of coffee and start reading. You'll get the inside scoop from a screenwriter who had more than a dozen proudced screenplays between movies and television.

To survive and thrive in the fantasyland that is show business, you need to know the realities of writing and selling. J. Michael Straczynski learned these realities the hard way. With his help, you'll learn them the easy way. Here the writer/producer of Murder, She Wrote and creator of Babylon 5 tells you how it really is - and how you can really succeed writing scripts. Straczynski shows you the importance of distinguishing yourself, through professionalism and discipline, from the wannabes. He helps you strengthen your writing technique while urging you to bring your own vision to your work, avoid formula, and create from passion. And he takes you in for a close look at every entertainment medium hungry for good scriptwriters.

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!

Eric Heisserer - the Academy Award-nominated screenwriter of ARRIVAL and Valiant's upcoming HARBINGER and BLOODSHOT feature films - joins Harvey Award-nominated visionary Raúl Allén (Wrath of the Eternal Warrior) for an all-new Valiant adventure...launching Livewire and an extraordinary new team of heroes into the fight of their lives! The government has dispatched Amanda McKee - the technopath codenamed Livewire - to investigate the ruins of a secret facility formerly run by Toyo Harada, the most powerful telepath on Earth and her former mentor. In his quest for world betterment at any cost, Harada sought out and activated many potential psiots like himself. Those who survived, but whose powers he deemed to have no value to his cause, were hidden away at this installation. But Livewire, having studied Harada's greatest strengths and learned his deepest weaknesses, senses opportunity where he once saw failure. A young girl who can talk to birds... A boy who can make inanimate objects gently glow... To others, these are expensive disappointments. But, to Livewire, they are secret weapons...in need of a leader. Now, as a mechanized killer called Rex-O seeks to draw them out, Livewire and her new team of cadets will be forced to put their powers into action...in ways they never could have imagined...

There's nothing fabulous about 50 for L.A. film critic Jeremy Lerner, who loses his marriage, his job, and the use of his right arm just days after the birthday party he begged his now ex-wife not to throw him. But fate is a sly devil.Jeremy's string of calamities leads to a game-changing emotional and creative rebirth after he meets the intoxicating Annabelle, a beguiling widow who comes to his rescue-and Jeremy to hers. If only their baggage didn't match quite so well. With the added support of his wise and spirited mom, Joyce, his capricious and big-hearted son, Matty, and Matty's steadfast new boyfriend, Gabe, Jeremy begins to change in ways that surprise, inspire, and galvanize him. All of this while his career makes a head-spinning leap. The thing is, can it last?The Last Birthday Party combines wry observation with an everyday wistfulness for a warm, propulsive, humanly funny tale of second chances set against the alluring nuttiness of Hollywood.