So You Want to Be a Scriptwriter and Make a Million Dollars

This book was written to fill a need, when I started teaching script writing at Santa Monica College and my students asked me to name a book on the subject I could recommend. After voluminous reading, I could find nothing which was completely satisfactory. Most of it seemed to have been written by people who had never written professionally for films and/or television, and thus had no first-hand knowledge of it from personal experience. The books were written from hearsay and observation, like trying to learn how to swim by standing at the edge of a pool and watching others do it, without ever getting into the water yourself. Or trying to fly by flapping your arms like a bird. It doesn't work. They have no hands-on (or wings-on) concept of how commercially produceable scripts are actually put together, and then marketed; and are of no real practical help to the beginning writer, or anyone else who's interested. Only a swimmer, or a bird, or a writer who has made his living at it, really knows how his special trick is done and can pass it on to others. And so here it is. Enjoy while you learn. Because if writing isn't fun, it's no way to make a living. Rob banks instead (but try not to get caught).

Irving Elman has written 8 movies, over 2,000 tv shows, 3 Broadway plays, 2 stage musicals, and has produced 5 tv series, winning a Pulitzer Prize Play nomination, 2 Emmy nominations and a Golden Globe Award. He has taught film and television writing at Santa Monica College.