writers.com bookstore

Playwrighting and Screen Writing

Arranged alphabetically by author; click on title for more information.

The Foundations of Screenwriting
Syd Field
Ask a successful screenwriter who to read and chances are the answer will be: "Syd Field." The Foundations of Screenwriting covers the basics of screenwriting from "concept to character, from opening scene to finished script." Considered an industry bible in LA.

Four Screenplays: Studies in the American Screenplay
Syd Field
In Four Screenplays: Studies in the American Screenplay Field looks at Thelma and Louise, Dances with Wolves, The Silence of the Lambs and Terminator 2: Judgment Day with frame-by-frame, in-depth analysis.

Screenwright: The Craft of Screenwriting
Charles Deemer
A guide to writing and marketing the Hollywood screenplay, based on the author's Writers.com screenwriting course of the same name. From concept to pitch, structure paradigm to step outline to script -- or from the mystery of writing by the seat of your pants -- this book guides the reader through the full process of writing a screenplay for the competitive Hollywood market.

3 Uses of the Knife: On the Nature and Purpose of Drama (The Columbia Lectures on American Culture)
David Mamet

The ALA Booklist called the essays in this small volume "terse [and] elegant," written "with thrilling simplicity and authority, discussing problems all working playwrights confront (What am I trying to achieve with this play? How come things always get balled up in the second act? Why are most problem plays ultimately unsatisfying?) and connecting his craft to large social issues (violence, censorship, the abuse of public office). Previous Mamet readers and those who know his work on stage and screen will recognize such themes and personal obsessions as the search for authenticity, the yearning for a moral center, and the search -- some would say romanticized -- for a very masculine kind of stoicism."

The Dramatist's Toolkit: The Craft of the Working Playwright
Jeffrey Sweet

Writers on the Net's own Jeff Sweet offers a concrete, coherent, and logical approach to the craft of dramatic writing in clear understandable language. Discusses the difference between literature and a play script, the need for audience participation in a play (and how to create it), the use of objects, the transformation or destruction of objects, and the way in which the use of space can illuminate different aspects of a play. Recommended for anyone thinking of writing a play and especially useful to the working playwright struggling to solve a specific problem in a specific script. Techniques as well as career advice, marketing techniques, and much more.

Solving Your Script: Tools and Techniques for the Playwright
Jeffrey Sweet
The techniques Jeffrey Sweet uses to write his award-winning plays and with which he teaches for New York's Actors Studio and Writers.Com. This book came about because readers of The Dramatist's Toolkit asked if Sweet had exercises he assigned when teaching. These exercises form the spine of the book, but writing this also gave the author the opportunity to explore new ideas. This isn't a book of vague inspiration but one intended to make writers aware of the technical options that face them when trying to tell a story with actors. Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Donald Margulies (Dinner with Friends) says, "New and seasoned writers, as well as teachers of playwriting, should find Solving Your Script a welcome addition to the small number of truly valuable books on the craft of playwriting, Sweet's own Dramatist's Toolkit notably among them."

The Screenwriter's Bible: A Complete Guide to Writing, Formatting, and Selling Your Script
David Trottier
This one covers the basics, correct formats for screenplays and teleplays plus offers a workbook help from start to revised finish. There's also a guide to writing specs, a sales and marketing planner, and a resource section full of such practical information as industry contacts, sample query letters, sample scenes, worksheets, checklists, and illustrative examples.

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