Making A Good Script Great: Amazon.ca: Linda Seger: Books

Product Description

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.

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Customer Reviews

50 Reviews

5 star:		(37)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(4)

Average Customer Review

4.4 out of 5 stars (50 customer reviews)

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3.0 out of 5 stars Some useful stuff, Mar 24 2000

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"___" - See all my reviews

This review is from: Making A Good Script Great (Paperback)

As an actor and playwright, I found much of what Linda Seger wrote to be useful. It's actually the sort of thing I wish that I had available when I started. I can only give it three stars as it does not quite adequately enough address the needs of the experienced script writer. It's, nonetheless, good, and I don't quite understand the suspicious negative postings on this page. After all, it is well-enough written, and objective, and Ms. Seger's credentials seem to be good.

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4.0 out of 5 stars A Good All-Round Guide, especially for New Writers, Dec 8 2011

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R. Widdowson (Ontario Canada) - See all my reviews
(TOP 500 REVIEWER) (REAL NAME)

This review is from: Making a Good Script Great (Paperback)

Linda Seger's how-to book on the basics of screenwriting is very useful. For writers who are beginning to learn the craft of screenwriting, it offers practical advice and good examples to illustrate what she means, plus it delivers its message in clear, simple, easy-to-grasp prose.

I've read some of the touchstones of screenwriting, including Syd Field Screenplay: The Foundations of Screenwriting and Robert McKee Story and am working through Blake Snyder, Save the Cat!: The Last Book on Screenwriting You'll Ever Need. As yet, I haven't gotten to Michael Hauge, though I plan to soon. I found Field a bit too reactionary (If its not Hollywood, its junk) and McKee a little too philisophical (I like thinking about the nature of things, but I need to know the mechanics, too). Seger corrects some of the shortcomings of Field and McKee. However, since none of these gurus are 100% perfect (who is?), they are best read together. McKee's chapter on the universal need within humans to be entertained by dramatic narratives was truly inspiring; it sent a chill down my spine. But after being thrilled by the lofty thoughts, I craved a clear lesson on technique. Seger delivered.

Seger's book comprises 14 chapters in total but the first few alone are worth the price of the book. They are:

1. Gather Ideas...(OK, not great)
2. The Three-Act Structure...(The best on the subject I've read so far)
3. What Do Subplots Do?...(Also the best, so far)
4. Act Two...(Again, the best, so far)

Seger's discussion on 'Act Two - How to Keep it Moving' was superb. I underlined almost the entire chapter. What is most valuable for a student needing basic training is her discussion of the elements of the story. For a newbie, like me, it's pure gold. She teaches what works and why--without going on and on and on (sorry, McKee, who is a wonderful wordsmith but sometimes fails to teach basic skills). The elements she teaches are:

a. Action Points
b. Using the Implied Scene
c. The Obstacle
d. How Many Obstacles are Too Many?
e. The Complication
f. The Reversal
g. The Twist
h. Structuring and Shaping the Scene
i. Creating a Scene Sequence

Each one yielded valuable lessons that I immediately understood (not because I'm smart but because she writes clearly) and began applying in my own script. The crowning achievement was 'Creating a Scene Sequence.' After reading it, I immediately told my wife, who is studying the craft, too, 'I finally get what everyone else is trying to teach.' Don't get me wrong, Field and McKee teach the same stuff but just not as effectively.

The first four chapters of Seger's book give the beginner excellent practical counsel on the craft of writing dramatic narrative. But for a well-rounded understanding of the craft of screenwriting, read a few other experts, too.

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5.0 out of 5 stars Well written and full of information., Feb 15 2004

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Patricia Lewin "Author" (Outside Dallas) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Making a Good Script Great (Hardcover)

No, you don't have to be writing screenplays to appreciate and get useful information from this book. This is one of my favorite books on plotting, and I recommend it every time I give a workshop on the subject. In general, screen writing books are good resources for plotting, but this my favorite. Ms. Seger covers Story Structure, Idea Development, and Character Development, then shows how it all comes together with a case study of the movie, Witness. It's a really well written book, choked full of information. Again, it's one I pull out often.

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Most recent customer reviews

2.0 out of 5 stars How to Make Your Unique Script Look Like "Witness"
... is more an appropriate title of the book.

While the book necessarily reiterates the important aspect of structured screenwriting, it really offers very little else. Read more

Published on Oct 17 2003

2.0 out of 5 stars Puffed up piece of...
I bought this book because it was required for a course I was taking on screenwriting. By about the fourth chapter I had found at least 5 blatant spelling/grammar errors... Read more