The two best books I'v read on screenwriting are:Cold Bishop wrote:I'm curious: does anyone know of any good books about screenplays that aren't simply "how-to's"? Something that gets into it as it's own form? Certainly a really good how-to could cover such things, but I'm hard pressed to find anything like this.
On Film-Making by Alexander Mackendrick
The Tools of Screenwriting by David Howard and Edward Mabley
The first is conceptual rather than how-to. The second is partly how-to, but it also examines many individual movies to see how the theory works. What I like about these books is that they are "pre-Field" in that they are old-school examples of the art of screenwriting. Syd Field changed everything in the late 70s when he turned everything into a formula.
The "industry standard" is Robert McKee's Story. However, be warned, it is very dense and can come across as preachy and dogmatic. Still, there's lots of good stuff in there. Just not for beginners.
For beginners who don't want to wade through McKee, there is Making A Good Script Great by Linda Seger. It covers all the bases on what a good modern screenplay should do.
From an insider's perspective, check out Adventures in the Screen Trade by William Goldman.
Another good, although very technical, book is Linda Aaronson's The 21st Century Screenplay, which examines the trend in non-linear story-telling. Not for the faint-hearted.
Stay away from a book called Save The Cat by Blake Snyder, unless you want to understand why all modern Hollywood movies feel like the same movie.