Writing a Screenplay: Books and Software (Scriptwriting Programs: Final Draft, MovieMagic)

What's going to help you write a good film? Well, nothing will ever replace a good story, but some things can help you figure out the most effective way to tell that story. On this page I have listed some resources I think can be of benefit to aspiring screenwriters, as well as to people who already have many drafts behind them: Classic short films on DVD and great/successful scripts that let you make your own film school, script authoring software that makes formatting your final draft a breeze, and screenwriting books that deal with story and structure, as well as relate experiences in the film industry and entertainment business that help a screenwriter learn how to market and sell a screenplay or treatment once it is written.

Creating Unforgettable Characters

A detailed guide on how to create strong, multidimensional characters in fiction, covering everything from research to character block. Interviews with today's top writers complete this essential volume.

Aristotle's Poetics

The original, Aristotle's short study of storytelling, written in the fourth century B.C., is the world's first critical book about the laws of literature. Sure, it's 2400 years old, but Aristotle's discussions--Unity of Plot, Reversal of the Situation, Character--though written in the context of ancient Greek Tragedy, Comedy and Epic Poetry, are timeless.

The Hero with a Thousand Faces

The first popular work to combine the spiritual and psychological insights of modern psychoanalysis with the archetypes of world mythology. A true classic and a must-read for any writer.

Art Of Dramatic Writing

Using examples from everything from William Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet to Henrik Ibsen's A Doll's House, Egri shows how it is essential for the author to have a basic premise -- a thesis, demonstrated in terms of human behavior -- and to develop the dramatic conflict on the basis of that behavior.