Screenwriting

[Ash]

I am currently writing my own horror story involving zombies, the U.S. military, lots of explosives & heavy firepower.

Believe me when I say that it's bloody gruesome.

Loads of gore!

Eventually, once it's finished I want to convert the entire thing into a screenplay.

Do any of you know of any specific books or websites that give really good advice on screenwriting?



Post Edited (05-28-03 01:47)

[Nathan Shumate]

Yes.  Got here:

http://www.scriptsecrets.net

And here:

http://www.scriptsales.com

Pay special attention to the messageboards (and for God's sake, read some of the posts before you ask questions, so that you don't ask something that's been asked every twenty minutes since the dinosaurs died out).

Then go for some books.  Read J. Michael Stracszynski's Complete Book of Scriptwriting.  Read William Martell's Secrets of Action Screenwriting (available from the Script Secrets site above).  And whatever else your library has.

And then read scripts.  Lots of scripts.  You can find plenty here:

http://www.script-o-rama.com
http://iscriptdb.com

And when you're finished with all that, come back for more.

[Ash]

Thanks for the info.....!

[Dave: Blackeye15]

I hope the movie's good! (Hey can I get free tickets when it comes out?)

-the first rule of fat club-

[The Burgomaster]

I have read several screenwriting books. Some good ones are:

* WRITING SCREENPLAYS THAT SELL by Michael Hauge

* Anything written by Syd Field

* There is one called SREENWRITING 404 (or something like that). The author's name escapes me, but it is also a very good book.

Then you should read some completed screenplays to get accustomed to the formatting.

I also suggest that you buy screenwriting software. I have FINAL DRAFT software and I love it. It automatically formats everything and even allows you to assign computerized voices to your characters and hear them read the script to you!

[Damien01]

Wish you luck... :D

I do have some advise for you...

Do not exceed over 120 pages (on the avarge your story must be within 95 to 120)

Follow the format... the fonts and line spacing is very important... (they will toss your script out if you dont follow the format)

Its better to have less black! (Most of these script readers dont want to read... no lie... less black is better)

I've learn this the hard way, as my script was 180 pages long and with format adjustment it was almost 213 pages... My mistake was cutting it to size, the first 50 pages were easy, but cutting things from here and there kind of made my story chopy (I guess someday I will go back and fix all of that but as for now I'm ok) It was never ment to be a movie anyway, and that is because I didnt pull any punches when writing it... I also had lots of fun writing my story...

[JohnL]

Don't forget that whatever you write will be re-written by about 10 other people by the time it ever reaches a set and will bear almost no relation to what you started with.