Hi All,

I'm new here. I was wondering, does anyone have any favorite books or 'tools' on scriptwriting? I'm looking to expand my toolbox.

I've been watching some workshop type films on scriptwriting on YouTube.com - and getting some great ideas...but I thought polling you might be helpful. :)

Thanks!
Tena

Well there are several programs like Final Draft, MovieMagic and Scriptware that all do basically the same thing. And there is freeware that will create the Macros in Microsoft Word that do pretty much most of the Screenplay formatting for you.

My favorite books are "The Writers Journey" by Christopher Vogler and "How to Write a Movie in 21 days" by Vicki King. I especially like the two auto-biographies of William Goldman for a look into what it's like to be an "A" list writer, and to get bumped from the list, and how to not give a damn when they put you back on.

These aren't strictly about scriptwriting, but I've found they helped me: Stephen King's "On Writing", and Ray Bradbury's "Zen and the Art of Writing."

"How NOT To Write A Screenplay" is by far the best book I've read about screenwriting. Though I would recommend finding as many scripts as you can online and just read them. You can find a bunch at www.simplyscripts.com

You may also want to check out this thread: http://www.dvinfo.net/conf/showthread.php?t=76588

Thanks for all your suggestions. :)

I love 'On Writing' by Stephen King. It's been a staple...I read it over and over again.

I just ordered this DVD workshop: http://www.mindseyemedia.com/workshops.html

I've been watching the sample videos and really like the style. It goes through everything from developing characters to symbols and metaphors.

here are the samples:
http://www.mindseyemedia.com/Steps/step1intro.html

Now, time to buy some new books!

for free software, don't forget to check out www.celtx.com 's Celtx. It's a cross platform (including unix) script writing plus scheduling and storyboarding and assorted database production software...very good stuff.