Writing Love: Screenwriting Tricks for Authors 2
Alexandra Sokoloff
Language: English
Pages: 257
ISBN: 2:00214431
Format: PDF / Kindle (mobi) / ePub
Learn how to write your own romance novels or scripts by watching and learning from the romantic movies you love!
From award-winning author and screenwriter Alexandra Sokoloff: the second in her acclaimed Screenwriting Tricks For Authors series, with a special emphasis on writing love stories.
Whether you're a published author or a brand-new one, this extremely practical and encouraging workbook will take you step by step through the key story elements and techniques of crafting a romance, with examples from romantic comedy, romantic suspense, and romantic adventure, including ten full story breakdowns of popular romantic movies.
Screenwriting is a compressed and dynamic storytelling form that carries enormous emotional power, and the techniques of screenwriting are easily adaptable to novel writing. You can jump-start your plot and bring your characters and scenes vibrantly alive on the page - by watching your favorite movies and learning from the storytelling tricks of the filmmakers YOU love.
Reviews:
"Sokoloff's advice is spot-on, and her teaching style is direct and effective. A must-have book for authors and screenwriters."
--- Bestselling author JA Konrath, A Newbie's Guide To Publishing
"Sokoloff is a generous mentor with the gifted ability to address a storyteller's practical concerns while encouraging artistic integrity and every author's unique voice. Only three of my half dozen novels have been written with her unwitting guidance, but I can guarantee that with this book at my fingertips, all my future work- and my reading audience - will benefit from her advice. Recommended without reservation. "
--- Vicki Pettersson, author of the Sign of the Zodiac series
"I loved this book! Alexandra Sokoloff breaks down the screenwriting process in easy-to-understand steps with examples from current movies and the BEST practical examples. Her unique and always lots of fun lessons are empowering for first-time writers as well as those with finished screenplays looking to take their project to the next level. Indispensable."
--- George LaVoo, co-writer Real Women Have Curves, writer/director A Dog Year
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Introduction
PART ONE: STORY STRUCTURE
1. The Master List
2. What's Your Premise?
3. First, You Need an Idea
4. What KIND of Story Is It?
5. The Three-Act, Eight-Sequence Structure
6. The Index Card Method
7. Story Elements Checklist
8. Elements of Act I
9. Plan, Central Question, Central Story Action
10. What's The Plan?
11. Hero/ine, Protagonist, Main Character
12. Hero and Heroine, Lover and Loved One
13. What Makes A Great Villain?
14. Elements of Act Two
15. Elements of Act Two, Part 2
16. Elements of Act Three
17. Top Ten Endings
18. What Makes a Great Climax?
19. Act Climaxes Overview and Examples
20. Expanding on the Key Story Elements
21. Expanded Story Elements Checklist
22. Love Story Elements
23. Fairy Tale Structure
24. Meta Structure
25. What is "High Concept"?
26. The Rule of Three
27. Voice
28. First Chapters
29. Theme and Thematic Image Systems
30. Visual Storytelling
31. Creating Suspense
32. Plants and Payoffs
33. The Big Twist
34. Character Introductions
35. Using Character Clusters
36. Your First Draft is Always Going to Suck
37. Top Ten Things I Know About Editing
38. A Process for Writing
PART TWO: STORY BREAKDOWNS
39. The Breakdowns
40. Leap Year
41. While You Were Sleeping42. Notting Hill
43. Four Weddings and a Funeral
44. The Proposal
45. New in Town
46. Groundhog Day
47. Sense and Sensibility
48. Romancing the Stone
49. Sea of Love
PART THREE: THE BUSINESS
50. Life is a Pitch Meeting
51. How Do I Get a Literary Agent?
52. Internet Resources for Writers
53. So You Want to Know About Screenwriting
54. Recommended Reading
should be marrying). My favorite Wrong Sister story is Holiday, and there’s a nice twist on the Wrong Sister in 27 Dresses. That is, I like the sister twist in 27 Dresses, not the movie. Now, for my money, Tootsie is a far superior False Identity story in every way, and if you’re writing False Identity, that’s definitely one you should look at for genius ways of handling the specific elements of this kind of story. But Tootsie is also a farce, a comedy, and a character study of an unlikable male
we see his sorrow – and Anna’s – over his friends’ inability to have children. Anna impulsively climbs the fence of a private London square (this is nice fairy tale imagery, and another INTO THE SPECIAL WORLD and MAGICAL PLACE moment). Will awkwardly follows, barely avoiding castration on the spiked fence, and once he’s inside, Anna kisses him. They have a romantic walk (SETPIECE), and find a bench with the memorial inscription: “For June, who loved this garden, from Joseph, who always sat beside
gigantic creature of the sea. Knowing himself to be completely unqualified, he enlists not one but two vastly different “experts from afar,” the oceanographer Hooper and the crusty sea captain Quint, to handle it for him. But deep down we know from the start, almost because of his fear and his unsuitability for the task, that in the final battle it will be Sheriff Brody, alone, mano a mano with that shark. And he kills it with his own particular skill set: he’s a cop, and one thing he knows is
Meg realize that her shop really is failing. This is a good example of the dual climax pattern you often see in a romantic comedy, in which you’ll have a scene that shows the hero and heroine are meant to be, and then undercut it with a scene of what is keeping them apart. SEQUENCE FOUR Now there’s another escalation to the online romance: Meg emails Tom that she needs help, she needs advice, and Tom IMs her for the first time. And he gives her the advice to “go to the mattresses.” This is
falsely accused, or set up: The Wrong Man, North by Northwest) • Forbidden Love (Lost in Translation, Butterfield 8, Casablanca, Sea of Love, Someone to Watch Over Me, Water for Elephants, Roman Holiday) • Mysterious Stranger or Traveling Angel (Mary Poppins, Shane, the Reacher books, Mrs. Doubtfire, Nanny McPhee) • Three Brothers (The Godfather, The Deerhunter, Mystic River) • Reluctant Witness (Witness, Conspiracy Theory, Someone to Watch Over Me) • Wartime Romance (Casablanca, From Here