Books About Writing
Categories: WritingIn my efforts to be not a complete hack, I’ve been reading a lot of books on screenwriting.
In the process of both actually reading these books and just flipping through them, I’ve discovered something odd. Several of these authors have included examples written by themselves, and with few exceptions, these are some of the worst things I’ve ever read. That doesn’t mean the books themselves are bad, but examples from the author’s own life seem fraught with peril.
Aaron has a book by Syd Field, the oft-cited guru of Three Act structure. He includes 8 or 9 pages from his own "yet unproduced screenplay." I know those in glass houses (read: someone like me whose only paid writing job was dialogue for talking cars in a web commercial) shouldn’t throw stones, but this is irresistable. Here are some excerpts from Syd Field’s screenplay The Run:
CUT TO:
HEADLIGHTS—MOVING
A pickup truck moves INTO FRAME. PULL BACK to reveal the truck hauling a large trailer, the puzzling-shaped cargo covered with a tarpaulin. It could be anything—a piece of modern sculpture, a missile, a space capsule. As a matter of fact, it’s all three.
[…]
INT. LEAD STATION WAGON
Three people are in the wagon. The radio plays softly, a Country & Western tune.
STRUT BOWMAN drives, a lean and expressive Texan who happens to be the best sheet-metal man and mechanical wizard west of the Mississippi.
JACK RYAN sits next to the window staring moodily into the predawn darkness.Strong-willed and stubborn, he is considered by many to be a flamboyant boat designer, a crackpot genius, or a daredevil race driver; all three are true.
ROGER DALTON sits in the back seat. A quiet man, he wears glasses and looks like the rocket systems analyst he is.
———–
Wow.
To recap, in the wagon are a man with the same name as Tom Clancy’s well known character Jack Ryan, James Bond, and, well, I think a name like Strut Bowman needs no introduction. Wow.
You left out the really important part about Strut though - he’s both lean AND expressive. Think about it. Just think about it. It’s GENIUS!
Comment by John W. — July 9, 2006 @ 10:03 am
I prefer the books that use examples from real, filmed scripts.
Comment by jo'c — July 10, 2006 @ 2:09 am
Yeah almost all of the books I read use lots of real examples. That’s part of the reason the author’s personal examples often stick out like a sore thumb.
Comment by tiltedfish — July 10, 2006 @ 5:06 am
I like the re-use of the “all three are true” reveal, which you picked up on and parodied already.
Most screenwriting books that use non-produced examples usually use scenes that the author made up specifically to serve as examples, that aren’t intended to hold up as a real movie. So this is unusual. The only Syd Field book I have is “Four Screenplays,” which analyzes Thelma and Louise, Terminator 2, The Silence of the Lambs and (ugh) Dances With Wolves.
In my experience, actual screenwriters (or at least, the ones who become professors) tend to hate Syd Field and Robert McKee, but it can useful to be familiar with them since they’re often executives’ only point of reference as far as screenwriting is concerned. Actually, I’ve never read McKee at all.
After you read a few screenwriting books, you start to get a sense that there’s only so much that books can do to help you. Certain things are universal, and you hang onto those, and certain things contradict each other, and you take those with a grain of salt. And certain things are so specific and overly analytical you’re better off ignoring them, at least until the rewriting stage.
That said, one of the books I’ve liked best is “Write Screenplays That Sell: the Ackerman Way” by Hal Ackerman. It pretty much covers everything he’ll tell you if you ever take his class at UCLA. It’s a great, simple, no-bullshit take on screenwriting that pares it down to what’s important: writing that doesn’t waste your time and scenes that don’t bore people.
Comment by kenny — July 10, 2006 @ 7:58 pm
Thanks for the tip, I’ll check it out.
Comment by tiltedfish — July 11, 2006 @ 1:22 am
You can borrow McKee’s book too if you like.
Comment by jo'c — July 12, 2006 @ 1:18 am
Borrowed it from the library already actually. Read it. Twas pretty good, though it’s so long you kind of just remember a few of his concepts and move on. Especially since some of his stuff gets pretty labrythine and weird.
Comment by tiltedfish — July 13, 2006 @ 9:14 am