Screenwriting Books

The Syd Field books have been around a while and some would say his 3 act structure is simplistic and dated.
Save the Cat is an entertaining read and he has some useful insights.
Haven't read the Linda Seger book but I've heard it's excellent.
I would add Anatomy of Story by John Truby to your list. Sorry to give you more reading but his analysis of story structure is about the best I've seen.

I've always been partial to Richie Walter.

flyingtart said:

The Syd Field books have been around a while and some would say his 3 act structure is simplistic and dated.

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The concept of the three act structure may be easier than other paradigms to grasp, but that's one of the reasons it might be a good place to start learning the craft.

As for it being dated, it provides you with a template for structuring and developing your story from beginning to end. It's what you do within the confines of that template (or another template) that will or won't be dated, will or won't be entertaining, will or won't be a good story...

Screenplay by Syd Field is rightly a classic. I second DevelopmentExec on complaints about it being dated. It's not.

Linda Seger's book is an excellent guide for objectively analyzing your script.

Save the Cat has some very useful insights on how to achieve tension, sympathy, and such. The discussion on the use of the board is also helpful. I find his worship of box office equals quality tedious. But, as Blake Snyder would say, I'm just jealous I haven't written a box office hit. The useful bits remain useful.

ETA: To answer your question, I'd start with Screenplay for an overview of how screenplay stories are built. Then I'd read Making a Good Script Great for insight on how to get into the nuts and bolts of my script. Finally I'd read Save the Cat for tips on how to achieve certain effects.

You're going to hate me for this, but here's my fav:

Story: Substance, Structure, Style and the Principles of Screenwriting by Robert McKee

It's very easy to understand and it's great with examples and such. I'd also read Twenty Master Plots by Robert Tobias. They're both excellent. As for the ones you mentioned in the OP -- I haven't read them all, but I'll try to give you a bit of my opinion on them.

- Screenwriter's Bible by David Trottier -- This is okay. For me, it reads like the cliffnotes version of Story.

- Screenplay by Syd Field -- I liked this a lot. He's got kind of a grandfatherly tone. And I second the previous poster. I don't know when three acts went out of style. It's an amateur mistake to assume that you can just deviate from something that exists in every single good script.

- Save the Cat by Blake Snyder -- Good for outlining and finding the plot points of your story. While I don't agree with everything Blake says, he's right on with the fact that most successful movies do follow a beat sheet. And when he recc'd Legally Blonde, I was doubtful. But good god, that's actually a very well put together script.

I've read different books and a helluva a lot of screenplays, but I don't want to overwhelm you. More than anything else, just read a bunch of screenplays. Then write a bunch of screenplays and get feedback. And read this blog: scriptshadow.blogspot.com

I was looking at some of these books on amazon today. Would you say those books are more relevant for writing for film rather than TV series? Do you good people recommend any books for TV screenwriting?

Apple said:

I was looking at some of these books on amazon today. Would you say those books are more relevant for writing for film rather than TV series? Do you good people recommend any books for TV screenwriting?

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Any storytelling advice is useful for any medium, but for specific tv requirements (I presume you mean in the UK) I can recommend How To Write For Television by William Smethurst.

You should also take a look at BBC Writers Room. They have lots of advice there plus scripts of broadcast radio and tv programmes.

Hero's Journey

I am stunned that hero's journey isn't mentioned here.

Joseph Campbell - Hero With A Thousand Faces
Christopher Vogler - Writer's Journey
Kal Bashir - 2000+ stage Hero's Journey/New World/Transformation

You're going to think I'm crazy, but Kal is the best of the bunch.

Lots of other models are based around the hero's journey - Popper etc.

David Trottier's is excellent. I'm not a fan of Robert McKee.

Read this stuff; it's free: http://www.kullervo.com

flyingtart said:

Any storytelling advice is useful for any medium, but for specific tv requirements (I presume you mean in the UK) I can recommend How To Write For Television by William Smethurst.

You should also take a look at BBC Writers Room. They have lots of advice there plus scripts of broadcast radio and tv programmes.

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Thanks so much - that's really useful.

Apple said:

I was looking at some of these books on amazon today. Would you say those books are more relevant for writing for film rather than TV series? Do you good people recommend any books for TV screenwriting?

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One that I found to be really helpful when I was first sitting down and figuring out how to set up a sitcom (don't know what genre you are looking at) was Elephant Bucks by Sheldon Bull. It was an easy read and really broke down the sitcom plot which was nice.