Read a Good Book Lately? : Screenwriting Book List by Pete Stone

There are lots of great lists of screenwriting books but I just wanted to share the books that have helped me most with improving my screenwriting in case they might help someone else with similar strategies to mine. Obviously, you don't read books to learn how to write or what to write or what to write, that comes from unique inspiration. However, I have found these books to help what I write MUCH more clear and powerfully presented. I have written about 7 feature length screenplays now. The first four still remain complete crap, but I was just learning. I finally have three now that I have polished and revised into works I’m proud of. However, this list of books were a HUGE help to me during the revision process. In other words, I just took the ideas that excited me and pounded out the scripts and then used these books to refine the work. Once I got the scripts as polished as I could, I then sought out feedback from peers, and finally professional consultation to tweak it. I then repeated the process an am now thanks to Stage 32 working on polishing my pitch to properly reflect the script which I find is another major process in and of itself just as rigorous and fun. I have the kindle app on my IPAD along with the final draft app. This is great because I can take all my resources with me and when in boring meetings, nature, or pretending to work at work, and secretly be reading and applying what I’ve learned to revising. Anyway, here is a list of the books and my comments on how they helped me in case it might help anyone else. I studied screenwriting in school too but honestly these books helped just as much as other stuff in the courses. Likewise, please add any additional books that helped you in the comments below as I am sure there are many others, and as LaVar Burton always said “You don’t have to take my word for it.” 1.) Your Screenplay Sucks: 100 Ways to Make it Great by William Akers. This book is excellent because it gets you over being sensitive to the reality that even with a great idea the first many versions of your screenplay are still going to suck until you revise it many times! I read 5 or 10 tips and then go back and reread my screenplay to make appropriate revisions. It’s amazing how with opening up to the author’s objective criticism my screenplay would every time go from feeling “almost done” screenplay suddenly need drastic revising. The fun part was though I had a clear vision of exactly what needed to be change. I found this book to be a good first step macro approach to making changes. 2.) The ScreenWriter’s Bible by David Trottier This was the next book I turned to and found there is a reason why everyone recommends this book. The writing style is fun to read with great clarity and helpful examples! Again I would read this book and then go back and make revisions. This book addresses both the macro issues with your story structure/characters and also the nitty gritty details of formatting. I would also recommend Dr. Format tells All by David Trottier as it offers additional formatting tips. Plus David is a great guy! Before I knew about Stage 32 I used his mentor and script consulting advice. He gives wonderfully helpful feedback. The advantage Stage 32 has over Trottier with these services is that with Stage 32 your work is being read by executives and you have the added bonus of showcasing your work. However, if you are stumped and don’t yet want an executive to read your work then consider David Trottier’s services as he does offer very clear and honest suggestions too. 3.) The entire Blue Book Screenwriting Series by William Martel ( I think there are around 10 ebooks now available) All these books are EXCELLENT! They are fun to read if you just love movies in general even without revising a screenplay. However, reading his explanations and many examples was crucial to revising my own work. Again, it was amazing as I read his books all the clear ways I would see to improve my own screenplays again and again. 4.) The Hidden Tools of Comedy: The Serious Business of Being Funny By Steve Kaplan The script I am currently pitching now is a comedy so I found this book to be excellent with helping make some major revisions to plot structure in terms of setup and also character development that added to the improvement of my work. This book would be good to I think for comedian actors, stand ups, etc…. Of course, it is kind of funny in general when your family or friends catch you reading a book on “how to be funny” Seems to defeat the purpose, but none the less a very fun and insightful book to read! 5.) The Hero’s Journey by Joseph Campbell I read this book before writing my screenplays actually as it just helps with developing solid characters and story arc for whatever genre you are writing. Again just some books that helped me improve my screenplay to a level where I felt I could then benefit most from getting professional evaluation and feedback. In other words, I didn’t want to waste my money getting professional feedback until I had fixed everything to the utmost level I could on my own and with friends. I felt this way the professional feedback would truly help provide the most potent info of how to put the final polishes on my writing to get it ready for market and pitching opportunities.