“A wonderful basic textbook for people new to the field of screenwriting. It’s very useful for beginners, but intelligent enough that good students making the foray into screenwriting for the first time also find value in it.” —Alexis Krasilovsky, California State University, Northridge

“I’ve read nearly every book written on the craft of screenwriting in the last ten years. I gauge the book’s significance to my understanding of this art by the number of dog-eared pages. I can confidently exclaim that Armer’s book is dog-eared and underlined more than any other. His approach goes much deeper than most and is not the same old ‘paradigm’ that fills nearly every other book on the subject. This is for the writer who wants to stand out from the rest.” —Terry J. Linehan, University of North Carolina

“This text succinctly presents the basics of screenwriting. I like the discussion on structure.” —Margaret Kelso, Humboldt State University

“This book provides clear and useful advice. . . . An intelligent, practical discussion of the fundamentals of putting a raw idea into final, finished, and marketable form. It is good to have the guidance of a successful professional such as Alan Armer.” —Steven Bidlake, Central Oregon Community College

1. The Blank Page: Where Stories Come From
2. Structure, Structure, Structure!
3. Anatomy of a Screenplay
4. Characters at War
5. The People Who Inhabit a Screenplay
6. Dialog
7. More about Dialog: Techniques and Taboos
8. Revealing the Subtext: What Scenes Are All About
9. Elements of Entertainment
10. Format and Style
11. Comedy
12. Adaptation
13. Launching Your Writing Career: Practical Realities of the Marketplace
Glossary