Best Books To Learn Screenwriting

The books on fiction writing I recommend most to my clients and readers are:

1.The Art of Fiction by Ayn Rand

Rand’s book is the best guide to learn fiction writing because it so well shows writers how to create a story from the writer’s point of view. Rand not only gives practical tips of how to create stories she also gives the principles underlying them. These principles focus on the main issues in storytelling, especially developing the premise (concept) of a story. Rand’s chapter on Plot-Theme (central conflict/premise) is the single most helpful piece of advice on writing fiction that I’ve ever read. Her chapters on Theme and Plot are excellent, with her take on plot being unique. Every writer can learn from Rand’s tips of “How to Develop a Plot Ability.” If you have a deep interest in or need to learn Style, almost half this book is a principled and insightful analysis of style, focusing on passages by famous novelists. The Art of Fiction is the must study guide for fiction writers.

2. Poetics by Aristotle

While this text is not an easy read, it is the first and arguably most influential book on dramatic theory and also a must read for screenwriters. In these lectures (and others) Aristotle discusses six of the most important principles in writing fiction:

Praxis, Final Causation, Efficient Causation, Recognition, Reversal, and of course, the structural principle of Beginning, Middle, and End. I don’t know the best translation of these lectures, though I’ve been recommended the Butcher version. I have the Ferguson translation. 

3. Screenplay by Syd Field

This book revolutionized the study of screenwriting in the 1980s and is one of the most influential books on the topic. It covers many of the basics of screenplay writing: Plot points, sequences, turning points, and scenes. It covers script basics that every screenplay writer struggles with and must conquer. A screenplay is a specific form of fiction writing with its own identity and demands and Field achieves the crucial purpose of showing and explaining what these are.

4. Making a Good Script Great by Linda Seger

Also from the 1980s, this screenwriting guide was highly influential and its lessons are still fundamental and helpful. Seger’s book contains valuable discussions of key topics such as screenplay structure, motivation, character spine, and conflict. Its ideas on three act structure, subplot, creating a cohesive script, and finding the conflict are basic must-know lessons in how to write a screenplay. 

5. The Art of Dramatic Writing by Lajos Egri

This classic work about playwriting is written from a Hegelian perspective. That makes it an interesting comparison to Rand’s book, which is written from an Aristotelian point of view. Egri’s chapter on Premise is especially interesting. He offers a guide of how to create a story premise by structuring its creation on Hegel’s dialectic of Thesis, Antithesis, and Synthesis. This philosophy may not be yours (or is?) but it’s an intriguing and challenging method of how to realize the first fundamental to creating a good story: Concept Development.

6) Save the Cat by Blake Snyder

I am mixed recommending this book – arguably the most popular and influential treatise on screenwriting today – as some of its influence has been negative. I see too many scripts where the writer has blindly followed Snyder’s story beat formula. (So much for originality.) Snyder’s formula of how to structure a screen story does have helpful prompts for writers but these are not for all stories and do not show you how to create compelling and original story content itself. But what Snyder does that is especially beneficial for screenwriters, especially newer ones, is to give a method of how to create story concepts, or what he calls Logline or The Idea. His insights on this vital topic are well worth the price of admission and it’s important to understand Synder’s ideas as they so influence Hollywood creatives and execs.

Actionable Takeaway

Ideas are the key to life and thus to creative work such as fiction writing. Learn the knowledge in these books (and much more) then practise it over and over to weave it into your mind. That will truly lift your writing and stories towards the stratosphere of a skilled storyteller. Practised knowledge.

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