So you think it’s easy and you sit down to write a screenplay over the weekend. Then you quickly realize maybe it’s not so easy and maybe your great story idea isn’t so great and even if it is you can’t believe how confused you are as you try to actually write it. What you need is to read … and not just read but study … and not just read and study… but absorb the advice on structure, on emotions, on characters, on storytelling for the camera that Eugene Vale gives you in this superb book on how to write a screenplay. To quote Oscar-winning writer Carl Foreman, “The definitive book on this subject, and of immense value to anyone amateur or professional.” Vale makes this book so readable and helpful as step by step he sets it out in a wonderfully common sense way so you’re not struggling to understand it, and yet he manages to intrigue you and turn you on to not just wanting to write, but to write something wonderfully well, be it a screenplay or a play, or a novel. It still may not be so easy to sit down and write a screenplay but with Eugene Vale as your “teacher” and your “collaborator” your chances are so much better and your stimulations and satisfactions will make it a wonderful experience.
— ARTHUR HILLER
Director