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You Are Here: creation process: writing: scriptwriting books: The Screenwriter's Problem Solver
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The Screenwriter's Problem Solver
author:Syd Field
price: $11.16
BUY IT ON AMAZON.COM |
All writing is rewriting. But what do you change, and how do you change it? All screenplays have problems. They happened to Die Hard: With a Vengeance and Broken Arrow-and didn't get fixed, leaving the films flawed. They nearly shelved Platoon-until Oliver Stone rewrote the first ten pages and created a classic. They happen to every screenwriter. But good writers see their problems as a springboard to creativity. Now bestselling author Syd Field, who works on over 1,000 screenplays a year, tells you step-by-step how to identify and fix common screenwriting problems, providing the professional secrets that make movies brilliant-secrets that can make your screenplay one headed for success...or even Cannes. Learn how to:
* Understand what makes great stories work
* Make your screenplay work in the first ten pages, using Thelma & Louise and Dances With Wolves as models
* Use a "dream assignment" to let your creative self break free overnight
* Make action build character, the way Quentin Tarantino does
* Recover when you hit the "wall"-and overcome writer's block forever
Syd Field is the Richard Simmons/Anthony Robbins/Jay The Juiceman of Screenwriting. I say this because he is a master of his craft (script consulting) and proves this in every book which he writes. His video series, which I have seen a little bit of, deserves to be advertised on an infomercial. I love Syd Fields book on rewriting. He goes places where Seger and Deemer combined don't, digging deep into every revision element you could think of. I also think that this is his best book (although Screenplay, Four Screenplays, and Screenwriters Workshop are still in my opinion required reads for any person interested in this area of the fine arts), and I am anticipating the last draft of my soon-to-be-sent screenplay to be complete, of course with the help of this book. Take care!
I've been stuck on my screenplay for months now. It's good, I know it's good, but I didn't know what was wrong with it. I tried all the other books, some were good, others not. But this book just nailed it down for me. I found out what was wrong, and how to fix it. Great job. I'm going to read everything Field has written.
GET THIS BOOK!!
Reducing this book's approximately 350 pages to 35 would in my humble opinion have made it a hundred times better, and the price perhaps more in line with the informative value.
Lecturing on about how important it is to adapt one's script to the right format, and constant nagging on about avoiding talking heads, the author himself could have considered checking up on some of his own advice on how to keep the reader's interest, and avoiding dull and uninteresting writing.
I forced myself to continue through the 3-8 chapter (of a total of 22) with the cod-liver-oil-attitude; "I hate this, but I must - it's supposed to be good for me". Repeating sentences every ten minutes might function well in the author's classroom lecturing, but on print it's overly annoying. Especially when nothing really new seems to surface after chapter one. Sorry, but I got the feeling that somebody is trying to "squeeze some extra dollars out of me by using a well selling name", rather than was my hope; a sharing of real knowledge... hopefully made out of the urge to tell something of real value. Isn't this the perfect example of the wrong motivation for writing, the very same as the author is urging his reader no to do?
A much better read, and far more comprehensive, informative and enlightening, I find Linda Seger's book "How to make a good script great" which I am currently enjoying.
Reviews excerpted from: Amazon.com |
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