JUST EFFING ENTERTAIN ME

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.