Making a Good Script Great [Paperback]

Linda Seger (Author, Preface)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 1, 1994

Making a good script great is more than just a matter of putting a good idea on paper. It requires the working and reworking of that idea. This book takes you through the whole screenwriting process-from initial concept through final rewrite-providing specific methods that will help you craft tighter, stronger, and more saleable scripts. While retaining the invaluable insights that placed its first two editions among the all-time most popular screenwriting books, this expanded, revised, and updated third edition adds rich and important new material on dialogue, cinematic images, and point of view, as well as an interview with screenwriter Paul Haggis. If you are writing your first script, this book will help develop your skills for telling a compelling and dramatic story. If you are a veteran screenwriter, it will help you articulate the skills you know intuitively. And if you are currently stuck on a rewrite, this book will help you analyse and solve your script's problems and get it back on track.

--This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.

Product Details

• Paperback: 242 pages
• Publisher: Samuel French; 2 Sub edition (August 1, 1994)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0573699216
• ISBN-13: 978-0573699214
• Product Dimensions: 5.3 x 0.8 x 8.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 11.2 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (78 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #675,091 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #29 in Books > Education & Reference > Writing, Research & Publishing Guides > Writing > Play & Scriptwriting

More About the Author

I have an unusual background - since my degrees are in both drama and theology. I've combined the two through my work in the film industry since 1981, writing books on screenwriting, but have also been giving speeches about theology for the last ten years. My most recent book is called JESUS RODE A DONKEY, and is about Christian values from the perspective of the Democratic Party. That will be published in August, 2006.

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

101 of 103 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Indispensable February 17, 2000

By Adam Herz

Format:Paperback

Well I was browsing around on Amazon, and I found all these negative reviews of this book -- I am SHOCKED and a bit suspicious of them. There are few things I'm passionate enough about to jump up and defend, but this book is one of them.

Seger's book was the ONLY screenwriting book I read before writing "American Pie." Regardless of what you may think of that film, the fact is that this book taught me the things that made the screenplay SELL. Even in a teen comedy, you've got to have proper structure and character development.

Seger's book is basic, yes -- _screenwriting_ is basic. Beginning, middle, end. Be original. Have a character or two arc. Have a relatable theme. Done. The fact that most writers get lost in less important details is maybe why some people expected this book to have more. It has everything you need.

35 of 35 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars AS ESSENTIAL AS A DICTIONARY March 22, 2000

By Helene Wong

Format:Hardcover

As a script consultant, screenwriter and film critic, I cannot recommend this book too highly. It presents craft principles clearly and succinctly with good examples, and enables the reader to approach their own writing much more confidently.

The book is especially helpful at two stages in the writing process: the first is at the beginning when you're faced with a mass of story material, ideas, character elements, themes, bits of dialogue ... and you're trying to see the wood for the trees. The book helps you sort them out and develop a structure for the story, as well as defining the function each of these bits of material might perform in the script.

The second point at which you can turn to the book for help is after you've written a draft and you need to sit back and look at what you've done with a cold, objective, analytical eye. As you read the book, you find yourself applying the concepts and principles to your own work, and the weaknesses (and of course the successful bits!) are easily apparent. It works as a memory jogger, a kind of touchstone to bring you back to first principles, which often get obscured as you concentrate on the specifics of getting the stuff down in writing.

I've read many books on scriptwriting and have gleaned something useful from each one, but Making a Good Script Great is the one I recommend to writers, especially those starting out, and it's the one I personally always go back to as my basic, easy-to-get-around reference text. In fact, writing this review has just reminded me that my own copy is currently on loan to a friend and I'd better get it back!

22 of 23 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars This is Screenwriting 301 December 19, 2001

By mark gaddis

Format:Paperback

If you are a serious screenwriter that hasn't read the book, get it. If you are an aspiring wannabe you start with one of Syd Field's books on screenwriting. He will give you the important basics on structure, elements of a screenplay and plot points. However, when you have finished your script and you want to make sure you have finished the best revision you are capable of; read Linda Seger's book: Making a good script Great.

This book is exactly what the title implies. Linda's book will take your basic idea and mold it into the best script you can write. This is advanced screenwriting lessons.