Our list of some of the best Script 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)
- Screenplay: The Foundations of Screenwriting (2005)
- The Screenwriter’s Bible, 6th Edition: A Complete Guide to Writing, Formatting, and Selling Your Script (Expanded & Updated) (2014)
- The Hollywood Standard: The Complete and Authoritative Guide to Script Format and Style (Hollywood Standard: The Complete & Authoritative Guide to) (2009)
- The Nutshell Technique: Crack the Secret of Successful Screenwriting (2016)
- Screenplay Format Made (Stupidly) Easy (Screenwriting Made (Stupidly) Easy) (2018)
- Screenwriting For Dummies (2008)
- Bulletproof: Writing Scripts that Don’t Get Shot Down (2019)
- The Screenwriter’s Bible, 7th Edition, A Complete Guide to Writing, Formatting, and Selling Your Script (2019)
- The Craft of Scene Writing: Beat by Beat to a Better Script (2019)
- How to Write Dazzling Dialogue: The Fastest Way to Improve Any Manuscript (2014)
- Finish the Script!: A College Screenwriting Course in Book Form (2013)
- Cursive Handwriting Workbook for Teens: A cursive writing practice workbook for young adults and teens (Beginning cursive workbooks) (2019)
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.
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 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.
The Hollywood Standard: The Complete and Authoritative Guide to Script Format and Style (Hollywood Standard: The Complete & Authoritative Guide to) (2009)
The Hollywood Standard describes in clear, vivid prose and hundreds of examples how to format every element of a screenplay or television script. A reference for everyone who writes for the screen, from the novice to the veteran, this is the dictionary of script format, with instructions for formatting everything from the simplest master scene heading to the most complex and challenging musical underwater dream sequence.
The Nutshell Technique: Crack the Secret of Successful Screenwriting (2016)
"The Nutshell Technique cracks the code behind why we love the movies that we love. It guides you to organically write the story you want to tell." Veteran script consultant Jill Chamberlain discovered in her work that an astounding 99 percent of first-time screenwriters don't know how to tell a story. What the 99 percent do instead is present a situation.
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?
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!
Bulletproof: Writing Scripts that Don’t Get Shot Down (2019)
The team of Diamond and Weissman have been writing movies and mentoring filmmakers for decades. In this practical guide, they take the aspiring writer by the hand and guide them through the logistics and tools of writing an attention-grabbing, audience-pleasing screenplay. Readers will learn the interests and needs of managers, agents, producers, executives, financiers, directors, and actors.
The Screenwriter’s Bible, 7th Edition, A Complete Guide to Writing, Formatting, and Selling Your Script (2019)
The Screenwriter s Bible's 7th edition marks the 25th anniversary of one of the most , , and books on screenwriting. A standard by which other screenwriting books are measured, it has sold over 340,000 copies in its 25-year life. , it contains everything that both the budding and working screenwriter need under one cover five books in one! Among this book's wealth of are sample query letters, useful and checklists, , , and of screenwriting fundamentals.
The Craft of Scene Writing: Beat by Beat to a Better Script (2019)
No one comes out of a movie talking about structure. What audiences love and remember about a movie are great scenes. Marlon Brando in the back seat in On the Waterfront giving his “I could’a been a contender” speech.
How to Write Dazzling Dialogue: The Fastest Way to Improve Any Manuscript (2014)
You may know the fundamentals of how to write fiction. You may be more than competent in plot, structure and characters. But if your dialogue is dull it will drag the whole story down.On the other hand, if your dialogue is crisp and full of tension it immediately grabs the reader.
Finish the Script!: A College Screenwriting Course in Book Form (2013)
Based on actual class lectures and assignments, Finish the Script! offers an inside look into the screenwriting process as it’s author writes a screenplay from scratch along with the reader. By taking a step-by-step approach to writing, Finish the Script!, ditches theory and focuses on the actual process. It’s a full college course squeezed into a book, complete with exercises and sample assignments.
Cursive Handwriting Workbook for Teens: A cursive writing practice workbook for young adults and teens (Beginning cursive workbooks) (2019)
This workbook is for teens and young adults who are looking to build cursive writing skill. With over 100 pages of practice supported by easy illustrated dot to dot method, this book makes learning cursive fun and easy. The book starts with the basics and progressively advances to develop the muscle memory and understanding of how to form each cursive letter correctly and connect them.
Best Script Writing Books Worth Your Attention
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 script 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.
Making a Good Script Great: A Guide for Writing & Rewriting
Author(s): Linda Seger
ID: 1634970, Publisher: Silman-James Press,U.S, Year: 6 March 2010, Size: 650 Kb, Format: epub
Script and society : the social context of writing practices in late Bronze Age Ugarit
Author(s): Philip John Boyes
ID: 3279818, Publisher: Oxbow Books, Year: 2021, Size: 7 Mb, Format: epub
This is not a dress rehearsal : a short course in writing your own script for success in business and life
Author(s): Michel Masquelier
ID: 3304111, Publisher: , Year: 2021, Size: 2 Mb, Format: epub
Please note that this booklist is not final. Some books are truly chart-busters according to The Wall Street Journal, others are written 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 books you could recommend? Drop a comment if you have any feedback on the list.