How Not to Write a Screenplay: 101 Common Mistakes Most Screenwriters Make
by Denny Martin Flinn
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Book Summary Information
Author: Denny Martin FlinnEdition: Paperback
Audio: English (Original Language); English (Unknown); English (Published)
Published: 1999-05-01
ISBN: 1580650155
Number of pages: 240
Publisher: Lone Eagle
Book Reviews of How Not to Write a Screenplay: 101 Common Mistakes Most Screenwriters Make
Book Review: Covers Many Essentials Forgotten Elsewhere
Summary: 5 Stars
After you've read Syd Field's SCREENPLAY and Trottier's SCREENWRITER'S BIBLE, you're about 90% set on how to write a screenplay. This book will finish off that last 10% with excellent advice on polishing and finishing a script. The best reason to buy this book is the section on Overwriting and Underwriting, which answers frequently asked questions with clear and concise examples.
The book is written in very friendly and enjoyable manner. While not the first book on screenwriting anyone should read, it is definitely the last book you should read before getting started.
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Summary of How Not to Write a Screenplay: 101 Common Mistakes Most Screenwriters Make
Finally, what may be the last screenwriting book a writer will ever need to buy! Written by a Hollywood screenwriter, How NOT to Write A Screenplay carefully identifies and examines the common mistakes screenwriters invariably make when writing a screenplay.How Not to Write a Screenplay is an invaluable addition to any aspiring screenwriter's shelf--and you'd best make the shelf within arm's reach of the computer. Author Dean Martin Flinn, an experienced script reader, details the common rookie mistakes that drive script readers crazy. Flinn makes no pretense of being able to teach anyone how to write the next Great American Film--or for that matter the next Stupid Summer Blockbuster. Instead he offers information that will help keep the novice screenwriter's opus from being immediately tossed on the trash pile (arguably a more valuable service). As Flinn says in his introduction, if you follow the advice in this book, "you may not write a particularly good screenplay, but you won't write a bad one." Flinn offers practical advice on formatting, such as the proper form for a slugline and where to set your margins, and more general rules of thumb on giving the actors room to interpret their roles and avoiding dictating camera angles to the director (who will ignore them anyway). The second half of the book deals with content, also in a remarkably pragmatic way--structure, pacing, plot resolution, and dialogue that really stink are all handily dealt with. Flinn illustrates almost all his points with excerpts from screenplays both good and bad (names have been changed to protect the guilty), giving the reader concrete examples of the difference between poorly and well-structured scenes. Not sucking is an unusual goal for a screenwriting manual, but any script reader will agree it is a noble one. --Ali Davis
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