ASK & DISCUSS
INDEXWriters... The books that actually spark ideas?
3 weeks ago - George Wright
Hi all –
I keep seeing the same screenwriting books recommended time and time again (Save the Cat, Story, Screenplay, etc.) and honestly? Most of them don’t do much for me beyond regrounding me in the basics I already know. Sometimes it feels more like they’re selling a formula than sparking ideas.
The ones that have really stayed with me are the odd ones out, books like William Goldman’s Adventures in the Screen Trade or reading plays and essays on storytelling outside of film. They’re not “practical” in the step-by-step sense, but they genuinely did make me think differently about how and why I write.
Has anyone else found books like that? Ones that don’t tell you where to put your act breaks, but actually feel alive and useful? The kind that set the cogs whirring and help you generate your own ideas, rather than handing them straight to you. I’d love to hear what’s resonated with people.
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2 weeks, 6 days ago - Theo Angel
not a book, sorry, but a really useful and practical screenwriting video essay: https://youtu.be/gWHfsEJ5JJo?si=VV4spF5xu-8_Jdcv
2 weeks, 5 days ago - Heather McQuaid
I often revisit Jeffrey Michael Bay's book, Between the Scenes: What Every Film Director, Writer, and Editor Should Know About Scene Transitions, for inspiration. https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/18051735-between-the-scenes. And John Truby's Anatomy of Genres (https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/59808027-anatomy-of-genres). Truby's book is more like a reference that something you'd read sequentially, although you could.
2 weeks, 2 days ago - Roger Hyams
Thank you for this, George.
I would like to recommend the late Alexander McKendrick's ON FILM-MAKING, which is curmudgeonly at times, but also has some useful tools you can actually use. And a book that has nothing obvious to do with screenwriting, but which is astonishingly incisive about storytelling: A SWIM IN A POND IN THE RAIN by George Saunders. Even if you don't take away anything immediately practical, you'll have read several short stories by great writers, and analysis by another great writer.
5 days, 20 hours ago - Faizan Ansari
'Into the Woods' by John Yorke is one of the better screenwriting textbooks out there. For one, it's a more recent one, published in 2014, so the examples are contemporary. It doesn't just keep harping on about The Godfather. It takes into account the textbooks and theories that came before it, and so it feels like a consummate introduction to the craft. Mainly, it doesn't keep repeating itself like its rival textbooks and is actually a fairly engaging read.
2 days, 6 hours ago - Robert Dee
I've read a fair few and can recommend the following:
Writing for Emotional Impact - Iglesias (lots of good advice that's not in other books)
The Secrets of Story - Bird (lots of great tips, excellent chapter on theme)
The Writer's Journey - Vogler (classic hero's journey template, often misunderstood)
The Virgin's Promise - Hudson (female hero's journey template)
Inside Story - Marks (hard to get hold of but best book on character arcs)