Write What You Don't Know An Accessible Manual for Screenwriters
, by Hoxter, JulianNote: Supplemental materials are not guaranteed with Rental or Used book purchases.
- ISBN: 9781441102102 | 1441102108
- Cover: Paperback
- Copyright: 8/18/2011
Encourages you to move beyond your comfort zones in search of stories.
Acknowledgments | p. ix |
Introduction: Oh joy, another screenwriting book | p. 1 |
'Kneel before Book!' | p. 1 |
Breaking the ice | p. 4 |
Top ten tasks that are more important than reading this book | p. 6 |
What's it all about? | p. 12 |
'I saw Screenwriting Manual with the Devil!' | p. 12 |
'What's in the box?' | p. 14 |
How movies work, only without the complicated bits | p. 16 |
The trinity | p. 17 |
A boring pair of everyday shoes: narrative economy | p. 17 |
Staring open-mouthed at cool stuff: narrative excess | p. 24 |
Remember who you are writing for: show, don't tell | p. 27 |
When format nerds attack! | p. 31 |
'Write what you know': why this idea sucks and what to do about it | p. 33 |
Creativity today, or: 'Don't try this at home!' | p. 34 |
Write what you know? | p. 36 |
Write what you never realized that you knew? | p. 37 |
Write what you don't know | p. 37 |
Screenwriting: the hardest easy thing you will ever do | p. 38 |
Kind of a pep talk: you should write a movie | p. 40 |
Bad reasons to write a screenplay | p. 44 |
When 'Write What You Know' attacks! | p. 44 |
When 'Write What You Don't Know' attacks! | p. 45 |
'I want to make lots of green' | p. 45 |
'I want supermodels on my d' | p. 46 |
'Pfft, I could do that. It's just some car chases and splosions, how hard can it be?' | p. 46 |
Copying the 'hot' concept, or: 'Amagawd, I totally got off on Transformers 2!!1 1one' | p. 47 |
Good reasons to write a screenplay | p. 50 |
'I don't know exactly but I love movies and it's my dream and I don't know-wait, I already said that …' /blush / facepalm /hide | p. 50 |
'I have something really important I need to say' | p. 50 |
'My story is so visual it just needs to be filmed' | p. 52 |
'I have an idea that I love for a story, but I don't know whether it should be a novel or a screenplay' | p. 53 |
'I want to be a director' | p. 54 |
Ideas and where the pesky things hide | p. 55 |
Creativity in the movies | p. 56 |
Some kind of comedian | p. 59 |
'Le cadavre exquis boira le vin nouveau' | p. 61 |
Learning something new: the joys of research. Yes, really | p. 69 |
Screenwriting is For the Birds: a simple model for cinematic storytelling | p. 74 |
Story worlds: their creation and destruction | p. 74 |
Understanding story worlds | p. 76 |
The 'V': build a world, break it and then fix it again | p. 80 |
Rules of story worlds | p. 86 |
'I just do eyes, just eyes': outside-in story world creation | p. 88 |
'Now that's our ball now, right? And we're playing here': inside-out story world creation | p. 90 |
Playing story worlds to character and theme | p. 92 |
Plots and stories: why everything comes from character | p. 93 |
Story worlds, not plot worlds | p. 94 |
It's all about the concept | p. 97 |
No ifs. No buts. It's the law. You just have to get this part right | p. 98 |
First steps, or when bunnies attack! | p. 99 |
The theme | p. 106 |
The wardrobe | p. 112 |
The premise | p. 114 |
The pitch statement | p. 115 |
The top ten ground rules for a good movie pitch | p. 116 |
What is a screenplay and how do I get there? | p. 120 |
The treatment | p. 121 |
The top ten ground rules for a good movie treatment | p. 122 |
The screenplay | p. 126 |
Basic spec screenplay format: it looks like this for a reason | p. 127 |
Spec script vs shooting script | p. 128 |
'Taming wild words': it's all about the structure | p. 131 |
What structure is for and where it comes from | p. 135 |
Ring compositions and the 'origin' of structure | p. 140 |
Narration: positioning your audience | p. 147 |
Narrators | p. 148 |
The control of story information | p. 150 |
Exposition | p. 153 |
The 'W' model of screenplay structure: acts and angles | p. 159 |
Acting it all out | p. 161 |
Act one: first down angle | p. 163 |
Act two | p. 164 |
First up angle | p. 167 |
Midpoint | p. 169 |
Second down angle | p. 170 |
Act three: second up angle | p. 172 |
Spanking your hero/ine | p. 174 |
Beating it up | p. 176 |
Bite size morsels | p. 176 |
The 'W' beat sheets | p. 177 |
The 'W' in half angles | p. 177 |
The 'W' in sixteen beats | p. 189 |
The 'W' as a ring | p. 190 |
Making a scene | p. 194 |
Writing to be acted and directed | p. 197 |
Scene beats and character tactics | p. 198 |
Case study: scene beats in Juno | p. 201 |
Case study: Brick in the 'W' | p. 204 |
It's all about the characters: this time I really mean it | p. 231 |
Character development, or why writing a character bio is often a waste of ink | p. 232 |
Return of the bunnies: story goals, plot goals and the need to share the pain | p. 234 |
Wants and needs | p. 237 |
The 'C Team' | p. 238 |
Hero/ines | p. 238 |
Why 'my character is kind of an everyman' often translates as 'I'm a lazy-ass writer' | p. 242 |
Antagonists | p. 245 |
The rest of the C Team | p. 250 |
Ensembles do it (sigh) together | p. 254 |
Dialogue is not just people talking | p. 256 |
Dialogue is unnatural naturalism | p. 256 |
Mundanity is boring only when it is mundane | p. 257 |
Sociolect, genderlect and idiolect, or 'vocabulary' for grad students | p. 259 |
Articulacy is not a default human skill | p. 265 |
Movie dialogue is dynamic-except when it isn't | p. 266 |
Why clarity always spanks dialect | p. 272 |
Having all your characters constantly swear like troopers is basically you holding up a big sign reading: 'Don't buy my script!' | p. 274 |
Dialogue comes to life in the re-writes | p. 276 |
OK, what now? | p. 277 |
Well, now we start rewrites | p. 277 |
Remember to kill your darlings | p. 280 |
Kind of a kick in the butt: keep at it | p. 283 |
Table of Contents provided by Ingram. All Rights Reserved. |
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