The Screenwriter's Problem Solver: How to Recognize, Identify, and Define Screenwriting Problems - Softcover

Field, Syd

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0440504910 ISBN 13: 9780440504917

Publisher: Delta, 1998

Synopsis

Problems plague every screenwriter, and even most pros' first drafts inevitably need a bunch of rewrites. Good writers don't despair; they see their problems as creative springboards to make every subsequent draft better.

But how do you know what truly isn't working in your screenplay? And even when you've figured that out, how do you know exactly what changes to make to improve it?In this comprehensive, step-by-step guide, best-selling author Syd Field (Screenplay Hook professional readers by writing the most powerful version of your script's first ten pages,  
and The Screenwriter's Workbook) helps you identify and remedy common screenwriting problems. Field provides professional secrets that make movies brilliant - secrets that can elevate the quality of your screenplay, and aim it for success. 
Using The Screenwriter's Problem Solver, you'll learn to:

• Understand how great stories work regarding: structure, feeling, entertainment value and more, 

• Hook professional readers by writing the most powerful version of your script's first ten pages,  

• Use a "dream assignment" to liberate elusive parts of your creative self, overnight, 

• Leverage action to build character, the way Quentin Tarantino does,

• Recover when you "hit the wall" - and overcome writer's block forever.

Syd Field's ground-breaking work discerning the deep structure of successful screenplays is based on decades of study - encompassing thousands of scripts and films. This is the stuff that doesn't change - even as wildly popular trends, like superhero movies, come and go - because the fundamental elements that make stories resonate with audiences are rooted in our shared humanity. Field's insights about screenwriting are not only practical, they're also expressions of compassion and wisdom. You may find that some of the solutions you uncover using Field's approach to writing can apply to other challenging aspects of your life as well.

About this title

Review

Can't get your characters to shut up? Is the bit player in Act II more compelling than your protagonist? Do your scenes drag on f-o-r-e-v-e-r? Whatever your problem, screenwriting guru Syd Field can help; he's written four previous books on screenwriting, teaches worldwide, and is "involved in the reading and writing of about a thousand screenplays a year." Screenplays bog down in vague and mysterious ways, says Field; identifying a screenwriting problem is half the battle. Fixing a screenplay that seems dazed and confused might seem like Mission: Impossible, but you've got to have courage under fire. By identifying symptoms in the writing, Field isolates about 20 different screenwriting problems, each related to plot, character, or structure (after all, what else is there?). His fixes generally involve getting to know your characters or story better, through the use of automatic writing, biographical sketches, and the like. For examples of spectacular screenwriting, he offers excerpts from the screenplays for Thelma and Louise, The Shawshank Redemption, Pulp Fiction, Apollo 13, and Silence of the Lambs. Field is a man of many mantras: "Writing is rewriting," "Film is behavior," "Drama is conflict," "Action is character." But his advice is so useful that you'll forgive him his facile phrasemaking. And you'll thank him for persuading you that, yes, "a problem is an opportunity, a challenge that will allow you to ultimately improve your craft." --Jane Steinberg

From the Publisher

With examples from Pulp Fiction, How to Make an American Quilt, The Shawshank Redemption, Crimson Tide, Broken Arrow...and more of Hollywood's biggest hits

"The most sought-after screenwriting teacher in the world."
--The Hollywood Reporter

"If I were writing screenplays...I would carry Syd Field around in my back pocket wherever I went."
--Steven Bochco, writer/producer/director, L.A. Law, NYPD Blue

"I based Like Water For Chocolate on what i learned in Syd's books. Before, I always felt structure imprisoned me, but what I learned was structure really freed me to focus on the story."
--Laura Esquivel

Edition details

• Publisher: Delta
• Publication date: 1998
• ISBN 10: 0440504910
• ISBN 13: 9780440504917
• Binding: Paperback
• Language: English
• Number of pages: 384