Will Dee

Award winning screenwriter, playwright, and novelist Linda Aronson draws upon her many years of professional experience and expertise to present Screenwriting Updated: New (And Conventional) Ways Of Writing For The Screen, a singularly useful and “user friendly” compendium of advice, examples, tips, tricks, and techniques on writing scripts for television and film. Sections cover such topics as Getting Ideas, Narrative Structure, and dialogue writing. Sample scenes abound, clearly illustrating various writing principles and rendering the concepts in concrete, unmistakable clarity. A complete “how to” course in a single volume, Screenwriting Updated is very highly recommended for both aspiring and active screenwriters.

Rating: 5 / 5

Screenwriting Updated: New Ways of Writing for the Screen

Ms Aronson, who is based in Australia, has written an advanced book for professional Screenwriters. This book, while a “How-to” in nature, is not for a novice. At least an intro-level “Dummies” or “Idiots” screenwriting book needs to be digested first.

Recall that “writing a novel” and “adapting a novel to a screenplay” is a very different and daunting task. Thus competence in a high school or college level English Literature course will prepare a writer for poetry, short stories and novels and understanding Shakespeare’s plays. English Lit does not prepare one for writing a screenplay.

IMHO a woman’s perspective in a male-dominated profession has broadened how women’s characters and dialog are developed. She analyzes several films which have strong actress characters.

The area that her book is weak is on how the Screenwriter fits as part of the movie or TV production team. She gives about 5 pgs to embellish, or give the “treatment,” for the production script.

Aronson’s book has lots of diagrams, figures, tables and lists. The book’s 6-pg TOC does not have a list of figures. The back has a 1-pg Filmography, a 4-pg Bibliography, and a 6-pg Index.

This book can be used as a college-level text. Many Figures contain pedagogical questions, many chapters end with an informal list of questions, and there are many film case studies, useful for the student that has easy access to movie DVDs for viewing and movie script books (or downloads from imsdbDOTcom) for analysis. See lindaaronsonDOTnet.

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Summary of the first-half of the book, important principles are keyed with asterisks.

Development Strategies:

Ch1p2,6,9 *1* Vertical thinking (analytical, task, left-brain);

Ch1p3,7,9 *2* Lateral thinking (personal & emotive, right-brain);

Ch2p19 *3* Pinpointing genre and models;

Ch4p32,35 *4* Get more ideas by creating links to different things;

Ch6p53 *5* Make sure disturbance involves real change;

Ch6p54 *6* Distinguish an idea from a story;

Ch6p55 *7* Create a simple story sentence;

Ch6p58 *8* Differentiating action and relationship lines;

Ch6p60 *9* Define the steps of the relationship;

Ch6p65 *10* Identify protagonist;

Ch6p70 *11* Identify antagonist;

Ch6p74 *12* Getting into character;

Ch6p75 *13* Finding first-act turning point (surprise/obstacle);

Ch6p77 *14* Devise 2nd-act complications;

Ch6p78 *15* Find 2nd-act turning point;

Ch6p79 *16* Find climax;

Ch6p80 *17* Estab 1st-act turning point thru final climax;

Ch6p81 *18* Coming to a resolution and ending;

Ch6p82 *19* Checklist before starting to write 1st draft;

Ch6p83 *20* Create advanced story sentence;

Ch6p84 *21* Check that relationship line is moving;

Ch6p86 *21* Getting right scenario for each scene;

Ch6p87 *23* Creating opening scenes;

Ch6p88 *24* Using symbolism and myth;

Ch6p90 *25* Planning a screen adaptation;

Ch6p92 *26* Writing comedy satire;

Ch6p94 *27* Writing short film;

Ch6p96 *28* Wring journey film;

Ch6p97 *29* Staying objective at 2nd Draft;

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p1-35 Part I Getting ideas

p40-251 Part II Narrative Structure

p255-287 Part III Getting it onto Paper

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PartII Narrative Structure

p39-50 Chap5 Overview of traditional narrative structure

p40 Parallel storytelling is driven by the three-act structure

p44 Before writing, create a structure chart Fig5.4 which has major content & Questions in each of 3 acts.

p46 Create a Nine-Point plan Fig5.5 Act1: 1) Normality, 2) Disturbance, 3) Protagonist, 4) Plan, 5) Surprise, 6) Obstacle, Act2&3: 7) Complications, substories, more surprises, and obstacles, Act3: Climax, 9) Resolution.

p48 Eg Cinderella Fig5.7

p50 Index cards — one for each step of plot. 90min feature will require 60 plot points, a “moment of high drama” or “turning point.” Useful to spot plot weaknesses. Eg not enough plots, plots are intertwined and balanced or too clumpy.

p51-104 Chap6 Development Strategies for a traditional three-act film. Describes Development Strategies #5-#29.

p74 The 1st-act turning point is what the film is about.

p77 The 2nd-act turning point is the lowest point, emotionally and often physically, for the protagonist. It is the closest they come to death and despair. It is designed to pump up the suspense and the audience’s anxiety.

*****

Short Film

p91-93 Specific plotting problems: Must grab the audience and leave it with an overwhelmingly powerful impression. Don’t overwrite, don’t have too much dialogue; don’t have arguing characters other than productive conflict. Have scenes end on a question. Don’t make script do too much backstory.

Stick with the protagonist and antagonist.

p93 2nd-draft requires objective exam of every line of dialog, every event, and every char to see how much it is contributing towards the main idea. Be happy with your logline.

p94 Use professional-level script writing techniques

*****

p98 Using Criticism to Best Advantage. Make sure you understand the stuff being criticized and then make sure that reader’s diagnosis is correct. Make use of DS#2 lateral thinking to evoke more personal and emotive responses. Use the right-brain; female passive / aggressive behavior (See Stepford Wives (75)).

p100-104 Case Study: Structural Analysis “The Piano (92),” Jane Campion, Dir

p105-15Chap7 Alternative narrative structures: flashback. Diagram of “The Usual Suspects” and “Shine”

p117-27Chap8 Varieties of flashback narrative

p129-42Chap9 Quick Ref Guide Using Flashback narrative. Case study: Cinderella

p143-83Chap10 Structure charts Flashback narrative. Case studies: “Shine,” “The Remains of the Day,” “The Usual Suspects,” “Citizen Kane,” and “The Sweet Hereafter.”

p185-220 Chap11 Tandem narrative and Sequential narrative. Structure charts on “Crimes and Misdemeanors,” and “Pulp Fiction.”

p221-35 Chap12 Multiple protagonists and antagonists. Case study: Siege structure of “American Beauty.”

p235-251 Chap13 Lost in the Telling: films with Structural flaws. Analyzes 8 films, including “Jaws 3.”

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PartIII Getting it onto paper

p255-63 Chap14 Dialogue. Talking heads and poor exposition. p261 List of camera angles.

p265-77 Chap15 Examples of Flawed Dialogue writing. Analyzes two scripts with 2 and 3 versions of revisions.

p259-84 Chap16 Treatment writing and the Script as Instruction manual.

p285-87 Chap17 Writing under Pressure

Rating: 5 / 5

Screenwriting Updated: New Ways of Writing for the Screen