500 Ways to Beat the Hollywood Scriptwriter: Writing the Screenplay the Reader Will Recommend (Paperback)

A veteran Hollywood Script Reader spills trade secrets.
Hi Web Buddies! This screenwriting book offers down-and-dirty straight-talk about how to craft a screenplay the professional script reader WANTS to recommend. While working as a Hollywood script reader for more than a decade, I've recommended spec scripts that sold for $1 million, screenplays that won Academy Awards for those involved, and scripts that got new writers hooked up with hot agents. I know what I look for when evaluating a screenplay, and in 500 WAYS I let you in on what the typical reader may be thinking as he or she turns the pages of a script. And you're not only getting one reader's view of what goes into writing a winning screenplay -- the tips in 500 WAYS come from a TEAM OF CONTRIBUTORS that includes a top Hollywood creative executive who is on the cutting edge of deal-making with A-list talent, a million dollar screenwriter who scripts stories for top directors, a writer for prime-time network television, and a feature film producer among others. These are people who have been professional script readers and who used their know-how to beat the reader. They've struggled, whipped the odds, and now they want to give you a leg up on the competition. After reading this book, you'll be looking at your work through new eyes -- a reader's eyes. And that can make the difference between your work selling and not selling. Spilling hard-earned trade secrets, my contributors and I have cut away the chaff and detailed exactly what you need to know about writing to win the Hollywood script reader, the Executive Reader (you know, the person who may read only 10-15 pages of your script before making a decision), the director, and the actor who may eventually get attached to your script. All this information is contained in 500 easy-to-understand, easy-to-find tips grouped into logical chapters. Aside from the book's paragraph style section and chapter introductions, the book consists of 500 to-do's followed by examples of how-to-do-it. 500 WAYS includes tips on how to craft concepts that sell; writing action that's as exciting on the page as it will be on the screen; creating an opening sequence that will hook your reader; sustaining compelling conflicts at every level of your story; burning your characters into the reader's imagination by the way you describe them; using setting to pull the reader into your story and making it work hard for your story; screentalk that looks as good as it sounds; preventing the Act 2 story stall; side-stepping common genre traps; avoiding pitfalls in all three acts; ways to pick up the pace in any genre; checklists to make sure you've met the reader's expectations at various points in your screenplay; ways to create and sustain conflict; how to prevent subplots from hijacking interest in your main storyline; staying a step ahead of the reader in Act 2; integrating subplots into your story so they don't seem like after-thoughts; tip-offs to the reader that the script is the work of an amateur; crafting characters to start a casting war; ending your story as solidly as you opened it; how to alter a screenplay that didn't get a reader recommend the first time around; ways to correct common flaws and strengthen almost any project at any stage of development. Get the picture? This book covers EVERYTHING you need to know about crafting a screenplay to win over the reader. More than one happy reader of 500 WAYS has remarked that this very practical book belongs next to the computer, that it contains "everything in one binding" and that its tips can be cherry-picked for use at any point in the screenwriting process. Hollywood needs more stories -- why not be the one to write them? This book was designed for anyone involved in the writing process. And if the ecstatic e-mail I've been getting from happy customers is any indication that the tips work, well...the book may be on its way to launching a whole new generation of screenwriters into Hollywood careers. You could be next....