Best Books about Screenwriting and TV Writing

Whether you are a beginning screenwriter or have been honing your skills during the past decade, you are most likely always ready to read the best books on screenwriting. Sometimes, it's for inspiration, other times for motivation to stick to the craft despite the years of tenacious efforts seeking the first break into the business.

I have compiled a bibliography of the best screenwriting books I know about and use, and have made the list available on my Web site, AcademicBib.com. There are books on screenwriting and books on TV writing, each with a link to Amazon so you can get some information about the piece, read reviews and see if it's a book that interests you.

AcademicBib.com is a work in progress, so navigating the site is still a bit rough. However, using the links directly to the books on screenwriting and TV writing should make the search easier. Missing a book you're looking for? Let me know! You can post here in a blog comment or email the information to TheWriteScript@Yahoo.com.

Happy reading and, better yet, happy writing!
TWS

Pilot: getting ready for take-off

Grad school really impedes my writing. Comprehensive exams are finally over. I now have less than a week to make a few changes to the TV pilot and get it submitted to Scriptapalooza before Friday. Looking forward to having that done and getting the script "out there."

With the first week of TV pilots down and a few more coming up this week, it is already apparent that Hollywood needs a new crop of writers with fresh ideas and a different perspective. Frankly, someone's got to be able to present something that is not a formula-driven cop or lawyer procedural. These rehashed story lines are already old...and these are the new shows. Why can't creatives be more creative? Why do some people believe that the only stories of interest take place among cops, reporters, lawyers and doctors? I know these people...they're not nearly as interesting or exciting as TV makes them out to be. But for some reason, we keep perpetuating these myths.

No worries. I will rescue Hollywood and give you something worth watching and characters you want to spend time with. No cops. No lawyers. No doctors. No journalists.

Promise.

#Scriptchat

I'm a relative newcomer to Twitter. Fortunately, one of the first things I discovered was #scriptchat. Every Sunday there is a EURO chat and a US chat. It has been entertaining and enlightening about scriptwriting, and breaking into the business of writing, for TV and film. For someone like me -- a Hollywood outsider -- it has been priceless.

Tonight's guest host was TV writer/producer Jane Espenson. It is incredible to have a forum where anyone can ask the guest any question and get such honest answers, not just the usual "write" and "you can do it" b.s. It's worth an hour each week or you can read the transcript that's posted on the Scriptchat site the same night. Tonight's chat was progressing so fast, I'll have to read the transcript to pick up all the info I missed.

Whenever I find myself thinking that I'm wasting time on Twitter, all I have to do is remind myself of scriptchat and how much I've learned.

Pilot #1 -- Done

Pilot #1: Done and registered. I have my very first WGA registration number. I feel so...so...registered. Probably the first time I've been happy to be just a number. Yet there's something highly symbolic about having that number. There are those who start to write, and those who finish. I'm a finisher. I got through the marathon called the second act and made it across the line to pick up my number. Lots of starters...fewer finishers. That makes me feel good.

Now onto Pilot #2, f.k.a. the Spike TV script. Going to give it a quick read then come up with a plan of attack to finish it up.

Grad school picks up again way too soon. Dreading the workload and trying to balance all the balls again. Back to insane time management if I expect to have screenwriting time. However, I can ALWAYS find time to do the things I enjoy.

Scripped and Spike TV -- Not for me: Redux

Daniel writes:

I had the same moral dilemma, but if you read even closer, every submission except for the winner retains their rights. I guess just get a good legal team. And if you do win, well at least you get 2k and the bragging rights if they don't let you go further with it.

The Write Script:

Ever hire a lawyer? Let's say you win and want to challenge the legal agreement you acknowledged by taking on Spike TV (owned by Viacom). The retainer alone will be more than $2k. If you manage to win and get, say, the WGA minimum for a 30-min. piece, you won't have much leftover. In fact, you may just lose your house in the gamble as well.

Bragging rights? What's to brag about? I'm a schmuck? I'm so desperate I'm willing to give my work away and allow others to treat me like dirt? Who wants to broadcast that?

I'm glad the deadline has passed and I don't have to think about them any longer. The only moral dilemma here is on the part of the contest sponsors. They now stand for everything that is wrong with the business. I'll broadcast legitimate contests coming up and you can be sure I'll also broadcast which ones I consider bad for writers. But your comment (and thanks for commenting) highlights the attitude that many struggling writers have: desperation. If we weren't all so desperate, so willing to sell ourselves at ANY PRICE (and pay for the opportunity!), these crappy contests would go away.

Remember Walt and "keep moving forward."

Great Expectations

I have high expectations of myself. I fully expect that I will always do well in my classes, that I will continue to write good papers, do quality research  and soon get out of grad school adding those little initials after my name. I expect the same with my scripts. I never go into the writing thinking that I'll write something adequate or acceptable. From the outset, my intention is to knock it out of the park.

Home runs always? No.

The difference between having high expectations and of expecting perfection, is that high expectations still get the work done. Sometimes, you even impress yourself and others. Sometimes, you fall short of impressive and maybe you barely get to "it's OK." If you expect perfection, I doubt that anything will ever get written. Even if it does get written, it will never get shared with others. It will never get to the outside. Perfection, of course, is impossible. It's incapacitating because it's an unachievable goal.

My great expectations are to get the work done. That's the work of a writer. I've got the October deadline for Scriptapalooza for the TV pilot scripts. I plan to get a little writing done this weekend if the Universe allows it. My scripts won't be perfect, but they will be far better than the guy who claims to be a writer but can't get past the fear that others will deem his work to be just "OK." I've written long enough to be over that. My fear is in NOT getting the stories written. My fear is that you won't have the opportunity to see my stories on your TV or at your theater. That would be tragic for you and disappointing for me.

I don't want you to have to suffer that tragedy. But more importantly, I don't want to disappoint myself.

Reading Pilot Scripts -- 30 Rock & Community

I found two scripts online for pilots that have been produced: 30 Rock and Community. Interesting reading. The first thing that occurred to me about each was that the main characters' names were later changed. For Tiny Fey's 30 Rock, the female lead, Liz Lemon was originally written as Lisa Lemon. The Tracy Jordan character was originally Lawrence Jordan . In Dan Harmon's Community, the male lead, Jeff Winger, was named Jeff Crocker. Frankly, I think the name Liz Lemon is funnier than Lisa Lemon. Yet I also think "Crocker" better described Harmon's character than "Winger." But what do I know?

My intention of reading these scripts was to see that from the creator's pitch to the pilot production, things get changed. The essential ingredients remain, but names can change, scenes are rewritten and some elements are simply scrapped for different elements. I don't know to what extent the changes came later from Fey or Harmon, how much was dictated from suits or were battled out in development. It doesn't even matter.

Would I freak out if some suit insisted on changing my lead character's name? Yeah, I might die a little inside, but when faced with the possibility of having a pilot script turned into a pilot episode, followed by an order for 13 episodes...hell, I'd be all, "Sure, change whatever you want. What do I know? You da boss." Did Tiny Fey roll over so easily? Next time I have lunch with her or find myself beside her on an airplane, I'll ask.

Until then, the writing continues.

Pilot #1 ... Waiting for more notes

Tonight I finished the fourth draft of Pilot #1. It's been sent to my reader. I'd set it aside last week to think about it some more. It's weird to read it after a few days off. All the fresh jokes seem old now...I've heard them SO many times. Hard to read the piece as though it's the first time.

Does every writer feel this way?

Here's the deal...

It has been quite a month for ideas. Not sure why, but TV comedies are crowding my brain right now. I see what's on TV and the new shows getting produced each year. Not many of them are shows I want to watch. Now I'm writing what I want to see. Here's the list of projects I'm working on:

Project 49
This is my feature film. The project is outlined and several major scenes are written including the first act. About 20 pages written so far on the first draft.

Pilot #1
This is the 30-min., single-camera comedy I am nearly done rewriting. I'm cleaning up a few scenes, writing in a few extra parts for continuity and then it will be ready for WGA registration.

Pilot #2
Another comedy that I am now writing a quick first draft. Good, high concept. Spike TV: Bite me.

Pilot #3
Yet another comedy that will get started once #1 and #2 are both done/registered. I'll jot down some notes here and there in the meantime, but I don't need to have too many projects going all at once.

For each of the comedies, they are three distinct properties with nothing (other than the writer) in common. I want my portfolio to show range and depth. I want to leave a reader asking, "What will the next one bring?" Predictability would kill me.

Pilot #1 -- Penultimate Draft

I'm not sure exactly how to say this, but...

I love the snot out of this pilot.

Bring on the C-4

This crap is crazy. It almost writes itself. The concept is simple. The characters are distinct, have purpose and well-defined goals. The joy of writing, of creating, is that when I need to or want to, I can blow shit up.

Thank you, Spike TV. Saturday would have been dull without you.

Spike TV -- this one's for you

Spike TV is stupid, but brilliant in how they acknowledge this and how they intentionally target their demographic. They are unapologetic in how they describe their viewers:

"Our guys drink beer, chase women, play sports, gamble and attempt at every turn to successfully put off adulthood. The characters in our comedies must reflect these traits, too."

I respect that.

I found out about their screenwriting contest last night on Twitter. Woke up today with an idea that is dumb enough for Spike TV, so I'll write out the 30 pages and pay the $20. I'm not going to spend too much time on it. For me, this is an exercise to see how quickly can I go from idea to submission. It takes me back to my journalist days. Writing on the fly was my drug. We were always "on." We never attempted perfection, but we did marvel in how well we could write given the restrictions of the deadline. Back then, I learned how to write drafts that were so far beyond "draft" quality. A draft had to be good enough for print. There wasn't the luxury of time for revisions. You learned how to edit as you go, proof as you type, and write ledes while driving back to the office.

At the very least, I'm building a portfolio. When someone says, "that's good, but what else do you have?" I will have an answer. In writing.