Customer Reviews

Fitzgerald Did It: The Writer's Guide to Mastering the Screenplay (Penguin Original)

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

This book is perfect for people who already have a lot of experience writing stories, but who now want to try their hand at the screenplay form. There is none of the boring, basic stuff about how to define a character or what a story arc is; instead Wolitzer focuses on translating the skills you already have to the specifics of the screenplay. Very helpful to aspiring screenwriters!

I'm not quite sure about those who've given this little, wonderful book bad reviews. There's nothing bloated about the writing in this book: it's stacked with great information from right at the beginning to end. It definitely hit the mark it was aiming at: writers who already are familiar with story, structure, character, and dialog. Perhaps F. Scott would have done a lot better in Hollywood had he this book as reference. Well done!

I liked this book and found it useful to me as a writer who wants to break in to writing scripts. Honest and simply written and useful--not full of itself or inflated.

The author does not know how to craft screenplays, so she should not be writing a book on how to write and sell them. This book offers very little useful information. You're better off getting any other guide.

The information in this book is the same stale stuff a reader can find in every other screenwriting book. What disturbs me, though, is that some information Wolitzer provides is contradictory to what any person with an intermediate knowledge of screenwriting already knows. Based on Wolitzer's recommendations and writing samples, I conclude that she knows very little about screenwriting. I am glad this is not the first/only screenwriting book I ever read, because I fear I would have been misinformed about the craft.

An intermediate or advanced student of screenwriting will find little or nothing of note in this book, and will probably come away with the same impression I had: that the average reader knows more about the subject than the author.

A beginning screenwriter would be better off reading any number of decent texts: Robert McKee's "Story," or books by David Trottier, Christopher Keane, Syd Field, Jennifer Lerch, etc. I've read about 25 screenwriting books, and Wolitzer's is the only one I felt had not one useful suggestion or new insight.

Here is an amusing bit, taken from page 54 of "Fitgerald Did It," about Wolitzer's "screenwriting process." Perhaps it will illustrate the kind of information (or lack thereof) that this book contains:

"I usually gather various snack foods around me when I'm beginning something, knowing that I'll be there for a while and will need sustenance, but also because I want to give myself a little illicit treat to mark the pleasurable starting moments of a new project. When I begin writing, I like to feel happy but disciplined; the goal is a contented Zenlike state achieved through small indulgences . . ."