500 Ways to Beat the Hollywood Script Reader: Writing the Screenplay the Reader Will Recommend for $5.72

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I have bought this book 12 times as a gift for various friends who aspire to be screenwriters. This book is deceptively easy to read and at first glance, it's easy to dismiss the content as "phoned in". Once you begin reading the 500 suggestions, you begin to see the structure and form of "Drama" come through. I keep referring to this book over and over as I write because One writes to be read. What Jennifer Lerch accomplishes is the gentle reminder that screenplays are literary experiences before they are visual experiences. That in order to get produced, the screenplay must sell the story and create a reasonable expectation in the reader's mind of what the audience will experience once the film is made. I've read all the other screenplay books and taken the seminars and all that and this book is the one I keep around because it reveals more information the more times you read it and take it's lessons to heart.

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"500 Ways to Beat the Hollywood Script Reader: Writing the Screenplay the Reader Will Recommend" Feature

ISBN13: 9780684856407
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"500 Ways to Beat the Hollywood Script Reader: Writing the Screenplay the Reader Will Recommend" Overview

If Your Screenplay Can't Get Past the Hollywood Reader, It Can't Get to Hollywood

This ultimate insider's guide to screenwriting is designed to get you past the fiercest gatekeepers in Hollywood: the Hollywood script readers. This small army of freelancers will be among the first to read and evaluate your script and then to recommend it -- or not -- to the studios, directors, and stars.

Designed for quick and easy access, these 500 points are a step-by-step recipe. They cannot guarantee success, but failure to follow them can almost certainly guarantee failure. Tips include:

* Get your foot in the door: 23 ways to make a good first impression on the Hollywood Reader
* Screen talk: why it is essential to write dialogue that looks good on the page
* Your goals in each act: how to make your story unputdownable from beginning to end
* Specific genre issues: writing a romance? a mystery? a thriller? Learn their special requirements and pitfalls
* The final scenes: how to go out with a bang that will wow the Hollywood Reader
* Still didn't get positive coverage? Inside info on what to do and how to do it

Written by an industry insider who has recommended scripts that have sold for as much as one million dollars, this is the only book to show you what the Hollywood Reader wants to see. Clear, smart, and completely authoritative, 500 Ways to Beat the Hollywood Script Reader is by far the simplest, most practical book ever to hit the entertainment shelf.

"500 Ways to Beat the Hollywood Script Reader: Writing the Screenplay the Reader Will Recommend" Specifications

So you want to write a movie! You could consult Robert McKee's influential Story, Syd Field's rather schematic Screenplay, which extrapolates lessons from famous films, or novelist-turned-screenwriter Meg Wolitzer's literate Fitzgerald Did It, inspired by her own experience.

But the script you pour your soul into won't be read by a single soul you've ever heard of. If a star or mogul reads anything about your story, it will be in the form of "coverage," a brief report reducing your screenplay to a one-sentence summary, with a very few pages of synopsis and ratings of your characters, dialogue, and plot. That report is written by a Hollywood reader, who is likely to be a smart woman desperate to find something she can recommend to her boss--someone like Jennifer Lerch. If her eyes glaze over, you're dead.

Your eyes won't glaze over reading Lerch's 500 brisk mini-lessons. How many pages can you turn in? Not over 120. How crucial are the first 30 pages? Utterly. How many big, climactic moments do you need in those 30 pages? Two. How many scenes do you need in the dramatic opening sequence? Three to five. How many parenthetical comments directly addressed to the reader can you include? One or two per script. How about your favorite passages, where you plumb your characters' inner depths? Throw them away: "If the character doesn't say it, wear it, or do it, delete it." How do pros write? "Staccato. Economical." That's how Lerch writes. And if you want to get anywhere in Hollywood, you'll have to please someone just like her. Know your enemy--and make her your best friend. --Tim Appelo

Customer Reviews

an absolute must! - P. J. Venema - Amsterdam, Netherlands
I was very glad to discover this book on Amazon, it's a must for every screenwriter!

reminder - Cedrick E. Wilson -
This book reminds you of things you've read in other screenwriting books. The breakdowns of certain things is much better. It's a good book but all in all it's no different than other screenwriting book.

Valuable and does the job you wanted - Hans Joppa -
This is a useful book that I will plan to pick up over and over again. She gives you five hundred reasons that make sense, even though they may come across as the same things over and over again, it isn't. I haven't professionally sold a script; I have been writing for twenty years and she gives great advice on what to avoid when writing it. Thanks to the author.

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