Recommended Reading



With over 6,000 books on screenwriting available on Amazon you can really feel overwhelmed by choices.

Since you are undoubtably on a budget and can't buy them all, you're going to have to determine which books to get first.

Here's a list of a few books I relied on heavily for learning the craft of screenwriting:

Writing Screenplays the Sell, Michael Hauge

Hauge is the master of teaching an important concept - make your hero's motivation outwardly visible. You gotta read his book. He also has some great free articles on screenwriting at his website.

Story Sense, Paul Lucey

In the process of writing my book I found story sense so helpful that if I could have I would have put over 100 quotes from this book into my own. So yeah this book is amazing. Get it and use it!

Film Directing Shot by Shot: Visualizing from Concept to Screen, Steve Katz

This is an unbelievably helpful book which is often overlooked by screenwriters because of its title. This book has helped me so much that it's one of the top five books I recommend to screenwriters.

The Technique of Screenplay Writing, Eugene Vale

Click on the title to read about it on Amazon. But you can buy it cheaper at Half.com I cannot praise this book enough! Even though it was originally published in 1945 this book has ideas that will profoundly affect the way you approach screenplay writing!

Making a Good Script Great, Linda Seger

The section in this book that helped me the most was on Character - read it!

Wait I can't even afford those five books! Well you're in luck your local library will be able to lend them to you for free! What if my library doesn't have these books? Take the book titles up to your librarian and ask about an interlibrary loan (it's when the library is allowed to borrow books from other libraries in your state! And it's free!!!)

Also check out Michael Wiese Productions as they have a selection of screenwriting books you may find useful. They are the ones who published the book I rave about above called "Shot by Shot." One of their top sellers Save the Cat is on my list of books to read next.

I also found a lot of great information available for free online. Check out my recommended 5 Star Links!




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