Our list of some of the best Screenplay Writing books & series in recent years. Get inspired by one or more of the following books.
- Save The Cat! The Last Book on Screenwriting You’ll Ever Need (2005)
- The Screenwriter’s Bible, 6th Edition: A Complete Guide to Writing, Formatting, and Selling Your Script (Expanded & Updated) (2014)
- Writing Screenplays That Sell, New Twentieth Anniversary Edition: The Complete Guide to Turning Story Concepts into Movie and Television Deals (2011)
- Screenplay: The Foundations of Screenwriting (2005)
- The 90-Day Screenplay: from concept to polish (2014)
- Screenplay Format Made (Stupidly) Easy (Screenwriting Made (Stupidly) Easy) (2018)
- Writing the Screenplay: TV and Film, 2/E (2002)
- Writing Movies for Fun and Profit: How We Made a Billion Dollars at the Box Office and You Can, Too! (2012)
- The Screenwriter’s Workbook: Exercises and Step-by-Step Instructions for Creating a Successful Screenplay, Newly Revised and Updated (2006)
- Screenplay: Writing the Picture, 2nd Edition (2012)
- Screenwriting For Dummies (2008)
Save The Cat! The Last Book on Screenwriting You’ll Ever Need (2005)
Here’s what started the phenomenon: the best seller, for over 15 years, that’s been used by screenwriters around the world! Blake Snyder tells all in this fast, funny and candid look inside the movie business.
The Screenwriter’s Bible, 6th Edition: A Complete Guide to Writing, Formatting, and Selling Your Script (Expanded & Updated) (2014)
The 20th anniversary edition of one of the most popular, authoritative, and useful books on screenwriting. A standard by which other screenwriting books are measured, it has sold over 200,000 copies in its twenty-year life.
Writing Screenplays That Sell, New Twentieth Anniversary Edition: The Complete Guide to Turning Story Concepts into Movie and Television Deals (2011)
For more than twenty years, Writing Screenplays That Sell has been hailed as the most complete guide available on the art, craft, and business of writing for movies and television. Now fully revised and updated to reflect the latest trends and scripts, Hollywood story expert and script consultant Michael Hauge walks readers through every step of writing and selling successful screenplays. If you read only one book on the screenwriter’s craft, this must be the one.
Screenplay: The Foundations of Screenwriting (2005)
Hollywood’s script guru teaches you how to write a screenplay in “the ‘bible’ of screenwriting” (The New York Times)—now celebrating forty years of screenwriting success!Syd Field’s books on the essential structure of emotionally satisfying screenplays have ignited lucrative careers in film and television since 1979.
The 90-Day Screenplay: from concept to polish (2014)
The 90-Day Screenplay was workshopped at L.A. Writers’ Lab over the course of ten years and has helped hundreds of screenwriters complete their work. Many graduates of the Lab have gone on to illustrious careers as screenwriters and producers in TV and film. The 90-Day Screenplay method of structuring your story is organic, involving a rigorous inquiry into the dilemma besetting your characters.
Screenplay Format Made (Stupidly) Easy (Screenwriting Made (Stupidly) Easy) (2018)
“Loved every bit of it. An absolute essential tool for a screenwriter, professional or beginner. This man is a script genius!” –Alex Sorrels – Assistant Director, Worth Fighting ForWant to learn screenplay format?
Writing the Screenplay: TV and Film, 2/E (2002)
A well-written screenplay is the single most important ingredient in making a successful motion picture or television show. Alan Armer mixes time-honored theory with down-to-earth practical advice, giving beginning and advanced students the benefits of his experiences in both the entertainment industry and the college classroom.
Writing Movies for Fun and Profit: How We Made a Billion Dollars at the Box Office and You Can, Too! (2012)
This is the only screenwriting guide by two guys who have actually done it (instead of some schmuck who just gives lectures about screenwriting at the airport Marriott); “These guys are proof that with no training and little education, ANYONE can make it as a screenwriter” (Paul Rudd).Robert Ben Garant and Thomas Lennon’s movies have made over a billion dollars at the box office—and now…
The Screenwriter’s Workbook: Exercises and Step-by-Step Instructions for Creating a Successful Screenplay, Newly Revised and Updated (2006)
Syd Field's timeless manual on visual storytelling is your own, hands-on master-class with the man The Hollywood Reporter called "the most sought-after screenwriting teacher in the world." Field was the very first person to dissect thousands of films and scripts to find the essential narrative structure and shared functional elements underlying screewriting success. Chock full of easy-to-follow exercises and step-by-step instructions honed by Field in packed seminars across the gl…
Screenplay: Writing the Picture, 2nd Edition (2012)
Screenplay is a complete screenwriting coursefrom initial idea through final script saleproviding in-depth discussions of theme development; story research; script plotting and structuring; character development; dialogue; writing and rewriting methods; formatting; the ins and outs of marketing and pitching scripts; writing for TV, the Web and video games, and much more.
Screenwriting For Dummies (2008)
So you want to be a screenwriter? Whether you want to write a feature film or a TV script or adapt your favorite book, this friendly guide gives you expert advice in everything from creating your story and developing memorable characters to formatting your script and selling it to the studios. You get savvy industry tips and strategies for getting your screenplay noticed!
Best Screenplay Writing Books to Read
We highly recommend you to buy all paper or e-books in a legal way, for example, on Amazon. But sometimes it might be a need to dig deeper beyond the shiny book cover. Before making a purchase, you can visit resources like Library Genesis and download some screenplay writing books mentioned below at your own risk. Once again, we do not host any illegal or copyrighted files, but simply give our visitors a choice and hope they will make a wise decision.
Writing Scenes For Screenplays: (The 15-Minute Movie Method)
Author(s): Wang, Wallace
ID: 3597617, Publisher: , Year: 2022, Size: 567 Kb, Format: epub
The Modernist Screenplay: Experimental Writing for Silent Film
Author(s): Alexandra Ksenofontova
ID: 2889862, Publisher: Springer International Publishing;Palgrave Macmillan, Year: 2020, Size: 3 Mb, Format: pdf
The Instinctive Screenplay: Watching and Writing Screen Drama
Author(s): Sam North
ID: 3479864, Publisher: Macmillan Education UK, Year: 2017, Size: 492 Kb, Format: epub
Please note that this booklist is not absolute. Some books are absolutely chart-busters according to USA Today, others are drafted by unknown authors. On top of that, you can always find additional tutorials and courses on Coursera, Udemy or edX, for example. Are there any other relevant resources you could recommend? Drop a comment if you have any feedback on the list.