A comprehensive resource on screenwriting basics.
Hollywood script consultant and blogger Gray offers a debut soup-to-nuts guide to creating a script and getting it to the people who can get it made.
The author states that the most important part of any screenplay is its “Entertainment Quotient,” which she defines as “the reason the reader can’t put your script down,” “the reason your script gets a ‘consider,’ ” and “the reason scripts get sold and movies get made.” What motivates gatekeepers in the entertainment business is putting “behinds in seats” and “dollars in…pockets,” she says. However, she also notes that this doesn’t necessarily mean that a writer must sell out and write a soulless rehash of whatever’s popular at the moment. Gray does counsel writers to keep an eye on the zeitgeist but also to work hard on perfecting basic elements of plot, character, tone, dialogue, and tension—all of which she addresses in chapters in a highly modular format with lots of headings and lists as well as writing exercises and end-of-chapter reviews. The book also has a highly conversational tone, and Gray even points this out: In Chapter 3, she specifically talks about ways that a writer’s distinctive “voice” can come through in his or her writing. Her own voice, she says, is a “Mary Poppins, spoonful-of-sugar voice” that’s “not terribly different from how I sound in person. But it’s still a voice.” She effectively tackles other basic concepts, such as overcoming a bad draft and how to write a voice-over. She also takes writers through the essentials of networking and finding an agent. Over the course of this manual, Gray provides very clear instruction, and her methods are consistently simple and helpful. Fledgling screenwriters having organizational difficulties, for example, should check out the author’s thoughts on outlining using smaller scenes, each with their own setup and resolution. On the whole, her tips are practical and positive.
A comprehensive resource on screenwriting basics.Pub Date: April 7, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-304-40483-1
Page Count: 270
Publisher: Lulu
Review Posted Online: May 28, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2019
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
This is not the Nutcracker sweet, as passed on by Tchaikovsky and Marius Petipa. No, this is the original Hoffmann tale of 1816, in which the froth of Christmas revelry occasionally parts to let the dark underside of childhood fantasies and fears peek through. The boundaries between dream and reality fade, just as Godfather Drosselmeier, the Nutcracker's creator, is seen as alternately sinister and jolly. And Italian artist Roberto Innocenti gives an errily realistic air to Marie's dreams, in richly detailed illustrations touched by a mysterious light. A beautiful version of this classic tale, which will captivate adults and children alike. (Nutcracker; $35.00; Oct. 28, 1996; 136 pp.; 0-15-100227-4)
Pub Date: Oct. 28, 1996
ISBN: 0-15-100227-4
Page Count: 136
Publisher: Harcourt
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 1996
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Stricter than, say, Bergen Evans or W3 ("disinterested" means impartial — period), Strunk is in the last analysis...
Privately published by Strunk of Cornell in 1918 and revised by his student E. B. White in 1959, that "little book" is back again with more White updatings.
Stricter than, say, Bergen Evans or W3 ("disinterested" means impartial — period), Strunk is in the last analysis (whoops — "A bankrupt expression") a unique guide (which means "without like or equal").Pub Date: May 15, 1972
ISBN: 0205632645
Page Count: 105
Publisher: Macmillan
Review Posted Online: Oct. 28, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 1972
© Copyright 2025 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Follow
Popular in this Genre
We can’t wait for you to join Kirkus!
It’s free and takes less than 10 seconds!
Already have an account? Log in.
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
Welcome Back!
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
