Screenwriting for Neurotics: A Beginner’s Guide to Writing a Feature-Length Screenplay from Start PDF
Preview Screenwriting for Neurotics: A Beginner’s Guide to Writing a Feature-Length Screenplay from Start
SCREENWRITING for Neurotics SCREENWRITING for Neurotics A BEGINNER’S GUIDE TO WRITING A FEATURE-LENGTH SCREENPLAY FROM START TO FINISH SCOTT WINFIELD SUBLETT UNIVERSITY OF IOWA PRESS, IOWA CITY University of Iowa Press, Iowa City 52242 Copyright © 2014 by the University of Iowa Press www.uiowapress.org Printed in the United States of America Design by Richard Hendel No part of this book may be reproduced or used in any form or by any means without permission in writing from the publisher. All reasonable steps have been taken to contact copyright holders of material used in this book. The publisher would be pleased to make suitable arrangements with any whom it has not been possible to reach. The University of Iowa Press is a member of Green Press Initiative and is committed to preserving natural resources. Printed on acid-f ree paper Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Sublett, Scott Winfeld. Screenwriting for neurotics : a beginner's guide to writing a feature-length screenplay from start to fnish / by Scott Winfeld Sublett. pages cm Includes index. ISBN 978-1-60938-276-6 (pbk), ISBN 978-1-60938-300-8 (ebk) 1. Motion picture authorship—Handbooks, manuals, etc. 2. Television authorship—Handbooks, manuals, etc. I. Title. PN1996.S83 2014 808.2′3—dc23 2014010245 Dedicated to my loyal friend CathleeN MIller, who proves that writers can and do change the world CONTENTS Acknowledgments ix Introduction: Myths That Make You Crazy 1 1 The Idea 11 2 The Spine 26 3 Plot 62 4 Deeper into Plotting 83 5 The Scene 114 6 The Step Outline 126 7 Format 156 8 Description 176 9 Dialogue 193 1 0 Miscellany 210 11 The Rewrite 234 1 2 Selling Your Script 247 Index 257 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS So many people helped me grow in my teaching and writing, foremost among them my mentor and friend Professor Richard Walter, legendary chair of the University of California, Los Angeles, Screenwriting Program and one of the last original thinkers. The brilliant Joseph Epstein, whose class I took at Northwestern, is why I write today. At San Jose State University, Professor Mike Adams, Dr. David Kahn, and my delightful students taught me that teaching is learning—and nearly as much fun as writing. Throughout life, my mother, father, sister, and brother have supplied love (and money) that I can never repay. Bernardo Bertolucci supposedly once said that his psychiatrist deserved a credit on all his flms. I similarly credit two accomplished psychologists, Dr. Collins Chiu and Dr. Pat Hanley-P eterson, for liberating in me the creativity that lives in us all. I never met Alfred Hitchcock, but he has my everlasting gratitude for performing the ongoing experiment in cinematic narrative that was his life. Thanks to Sue Bergin, Melanie Webber, and Carolyn Beach Welcome for their proofreading, and to Drew Tucker for his indexing. Saved for last is my wonderful editor at the University of Iowa Press, Elisabeth Chretien, without whose help and encouragement this book would not exist.
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