Book Review: Advanced Screenwriting

This is the first book I read about screenwriting. You would think that an advanced book is probably not the best place to start but this one book was very accessible. You don’t always get your first choice when shopping in used bookstores, but sometimes you discover gems you weren’t expecting.

Advanced Screenwriting is a book for experienced writers as well as novices. It skips over the very basics and covers topics that are specific to screenwriting. Most of the ideas are covered in short chapters and require little background. Despite not having read other books on the topic I was able to follow along everything. It probably helps that I have read other writing books, specially on the topic of the hero’s journey.

Screenwriting books focus strongly on structure and plot, character development, not so much on writing style. After all only dialog may survive rewrites during filming. Structure is one of my main tools as a way of communicating ideas. My favorite topics covered theme (one of the things I found most attractive about writing), opening scenes, sensory references, etc.

This book is great about discussing ideas and showing examples. Moreover, since the examples are movies as opposed to books, they can be covered more quickly, they are more universally known by most audiences and are easy/quick to research if one needs a refresher.

I’m fully convinced that learning screenwriting will be a great way to expand my knowledge of writing by focusing on the areas I know I am stronger at (themes, plotting, symbolism, ideas, etc)

Just to finalize, one other highlight of this book (and likely of many screenwriting manuals) is the focus on writing a story that’s accessible and that pulls the reader along. If your story doesn’t generate interest in the audience, they won’t follow along. Successful writing is not about Art, it’s about Storytelling.