Finally! A Book for Screenwriters that Focuses on Creativity, not Rules! "Organic Screenwriting gives us permission to do what we set out to do in the first place: Tell stories from our hearts." – Luke Yankee, writer/producer of TV’s Conversations on Craft Writing for film doesn’t have to feel like an engineered exercise in story-building. Rather, it can be a story-freeing adventure, one that retains all the magic, wonder and awe of movies and make-believe. Learn to craft engaging, compelling, entertaining stories for the screen...spontaneously and without struggle, whether you're a seasoned screenwriter or just starting out. Be the Storyteller You Are...Go Organic: Write Your Screenplay the Natural Way! "What I share here speaks to the core of what I believe, not only about screenwriting but about writing, and that's that creativity is an organic process that relies more on discernment than rules, more on intuition than outlines, more on passion than structure. It's a free-flowing, in-the-moment experience that urges us to turn our backs on cookie-cutter formulas and paint-by-numbers canvasses. It's a realm where Story is king and Muse is both chancellor and court jester. It's a journey where we sit, wide-eyed, in a darkened theater and watch, awestruck, as our screenplay reveals itself to us on the flickering screen." – Mark David Gerson "A seminal work that should be read carefully by any and all aspiring writers for film and television … an enduringly useful reference work." – The Midwest Book Review

Digital media has become an increasingly powerful force in modern society. This volume brings together outstanding European, American and Australian research in "writing and digital media" and explores its cognitive, social and cultural implications. The book is divided into five sections, covering major areas of research: writing modes and writing environments (e.g. speech technology), writing and communication (e.g. hypervideos), digital tools for writing research (e.g. web analysis tools, keystroke logging and eye-tracking), writing in online educational environments (e.g. collaborative writing in L2), and social and philosophical aspects of writing and digital media (e.g. CMC, electronic literacy and the global digital divide).In addition to presenting programs of original research by internationally known scholars from a variety of disciplines, each chapter provides a comprehensive review of the current state-of-the-art in the field and suggests directions for future research.

Screenwriting Tip #99 Voice-over usually feels like scaffolding. You know-something you left in there when you were constructing the first draft, but really should have torn out after it served its purpose. Screenwriting Tip #120 Always remember that funny trumps everything. Your script could be written in crayon with your name spelled wrong on the cover, but if it's genuinely funny, none of that matters. Screenwriting Tip #156 The easiest way to write kick-ass protagonists is to make them incredibly good at what they do. Confused at the outline stage? Stuck in the swamp of Act Two? Don't know who your protagonist is or where she's going? You might feel like a hack. But don't worry-you're not alone. Even the most experienced writers feel like this at times. Sometimes we just need a few short pointers and reminders to set us on the path again. Xander Bennett worked as a script reader in the trenches of Hollywood, reading and covering hundreds of mediocre screenplays. After months of reading about heroic Sea World trainers, transgendered circus detectives and crime-fighting chupacabras, he couldn't take it any more. Xander started a blog called 'Screenwriting Tips, You Hack', a place designed to provide short, witty tips on screenwriting for amateur writers all the way up to journeymen scribes. This book is the evolution of that blog. Dozens of the best scripts (along with many brand-new ones) have been expanded into bite-sized chapters full of funny, insightful, highly usable advice. Let Xander's pain be your gain as you learn about the differences between film and television structure, how to force yourself to write when you really don't want to, and why you probably shouldn't base your first spec script around an alien invasion.

The Turn & Burn methodology offers practical, real-world advice for quickly turning stories - within any genre - into engaging and authentic movie scripts.

A structured perspective on the crucial interface of director and screenplay, this book encompasses twenty-two seminal aspects of the approach to story and script that a director needs to understand before embarking on all other facets of the director’s craft. Drawing on seventeen years of teaching filmmaking at a graduate level and on his prior career as a director and in production at the BBC, Markham shows how the filmmaker can apply rigorous analysis of the elements of dramatic narrative in a screenplay to their creative vision, whether of a short or feature, TV episode or season. Combining examination of such fundamental topics as story, premise, theme, genre, world and setting, tone, structure, and key images with the introduction of less familiar concepts such as cultural, social, and moral canvas, narrative point of view, and the journey of the audience, What’s The Story? The Director Meets Their Screenplay applies the insights of each chapter to a case study—the screenplay of the short film Contrapelo, nominated for the Jury Award at Tribeca in 2014. This book is an essential resource for any aspiring director who wants to understand exactly how to approach a screenplay in order to get the very best from it, and an invaluable resource for any filmmaker who wants to understand the important creative interplay between the director and screenplay in bringing a story to life.

Beyond Joseph Campbell and the much ballyhooed hero's journey, Michael Chase Walker takes the aspiring screenwriter into the rarely discusses alternative structures of outlaw stories, inverted myths and Messiah tales.

While most screenwriting books focus on format and structure, Kate Wright explains how to put story at the center of a screenplay. A compelling story, complete with intriguing characters and situations created with these screenwriting tricks of the trade can become a box office blockbuster film. Screenwriters will learn: - Developing themes within the plot - Using structure to define the story - Creating memorable characters - Establishing moral dilemmas and conflicts - Achieving classic elements of storytelling in a three-act dramatic structure - Mastering different genres