The goal of Shaping True Story Into Screenplay is to empower screenwriters who are spurred on by personal experience and help them make the leap from cathartic expression to true storytelling. With an encouraging and supportive tone, the book guides its readers towards objectivity about their experience. An autobiographical screenplay must move beyond a self-indulgent re-telling, and so this book explains the process of writing one’s own story in terms of antagonist and protagonist, beginning, middle and end, dramatic conflict and character motivations. This enables writers to discern the difference between ideas with true dramatic potential and memories best left in the scrapbooks. This book stresses the importance of finding a metaphor to use as a springboard for the development of characters and plot. This emphasis on poetic invention can help the writer craft a more artful script. An inspirational guidebook, Shaping True Story into Screenplay will help you visualize solutions to your screenwriting challenges as it explains how to: • Clarify the themes of your true story and use them as a springboard for the development of plot and character • Shape the plot into a personalized three-act structure along a focused spine • Layer the story with complementary, cohesive subplots • Build character arcs from the motivations and conflicts in real life • Invent a frame to help propel the story forward • Imagine events to create scenes that are metaphors for real events • Choose what to leave out in the interest of the story Candace Kearns Read has over twenty years of experience in the film industry as a screenwriter and screenwriting teacher and consultant, and this book provides an in-depth look at the specific challenges of adapting from true story, based on her experience.
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About the Author
Candace Kearns Read has worked for twenty years in the film industry as a story analyst, screenwriter and screenwriting instructor, many of those years in the demanding and high stakes world of talent and literary agencies. Read began her career as a story analyst for talent and literary agencies, primarily the William Morris Agency and International Creative Management. The clients she has read scripts for include Michelle Pfeiffer, Denzel Washington, Anthony Hopkins, Marlon Brando, Mel Gibson, Nicolas Cage, Roger Spottiswoode (Director, TOMORROW NEVER DIES), Jeff Woolnough (Director, THE DON CHERRY STORY and CELINE), John Wells Productions and Village Roadshow Pictures. Over the years she has worked on many films, including DANGEROUS MINDS, NIXON, WHITE OLEANDER, CRIMSON TIDE, COURAGE UNDER FIRE, TRAPPED IN PARADISE, THE EDGE, INSTINCT, MEET JOE BLACK, ISLAND OF DR. MOREAU, and many others. She has written over a dozen screenplays, all of which have been either optioned or commissioned by producers. Her scripts have been in development with Fox, Disney, Lifetime and HBO. Read teaches writing at Metropolitan State College of Denver and Antioch University, and is a script consultant to film industry professionals as well as aspiring screenwriters all over the world. She earned her BFA in Dramatic Writing from New York University and received an MFA in Creative Writing from Antioch University.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
5.0 out of 5 stars
Another MUST HAVE for your writing arsenal,
By James E. Monack Jr. (Washington, DC United States) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Shaping True Story Into Screenplay (Paperback)
Shaping True Story into Screenplay is a book that dares to say what needs to be said.Essentially that, just because something is true doesn't make it dramatic. Ms. Kearns Read shows writers how to squeeze out the most essential parts of a true story to make it dramatic an compelling. I often think that something from my personal experience will be a great jumping off point for a story or scene. The question I have to ask myself is; will it help the story or just be filler? This book taught me how to know the difference. I have many, many screenwriting books. Some are useful, some are not. This is one I'll keep referring back to for years, I'm sure. Jimmy
5.0 out of 5 stars
Great guide for almost anyone,
By Music Man (Boulder, CO) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Shaping True Story Into Screenplay (Paperback)
Candace not only gives great guidance for those that are writing or wanting to write a screenplay; the exercises at the end of each chapter give you an opportunity to dig deep into your own personal story - really for any reason at all, including just plain self-discovery. I've found it extremely helpful in my own first-time shot at developing a story into a screenplay. Candace pulls on a lot of her personal experience and offers it in a way that most anyone will find value in. While I have not read a lot of books on how to write screenplays, and no doubt there are some excellent books on the subject, this one is a gem; it is fun, engaging and you will learn about yourself and your story.
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