ABSTRACT

Learn the rules of scriptwriting, and then how to successfully break them.Unlike other screenwriting books, this unique guide pushes you to challenge yourself and break free of tired, formulaic writing--bending or breaking the rules of storytelling as we know them. Like the best-selling previous editions, seasoned authors Dancyger and Rush explore alternative approaches to the traditional three-act story structure, going beyond teaching you "how to tell a story" by teaching you how to write against conventional formulas to produce original, exciting material. The pages are filled with an international range of contemporary and classic cinema examples to inspire and instruct. New to this edition. New chapter on the newly popular genres of feature documentary, long-form television serials, non-linear stories, satire, fable, and docudrama.

New chapter on multiple-threaded long form, serial television scripts. New chapter on genre and a new chapter on how genre’s very form is flexible to a narrative. New chapter on character development.
New case studies, including an in-depth case study of the dark side of the fable, focusing on The Wizard of Oz  and Pan’s Labyrinth.

chapter 1|14 pages

Beyond the Rules

chapter 2|16 pages

Structure

chapter 4|10 pages

Counter-Structure

chapter 5|10 pages

More Thoughts on Three Acts

Fifteen Years Later

chapter 6|18 pages

Narrative and Anti-Narrative

The Case of the Two Stevens

chapter 8|11 pages

Why Genre?

chapter 9|20 pages

Working with Genre I

chapter 10|23 pages

Working with Genre II

The Melodrama and the Thriller

chapter 11|22 pages

Working Against Genre

chapter 12|14 pages

The Flexibility of Genre

chapter 13|12 pages

Genres of Voice

chapter 14|10 pages

The Non-Linear Film

chapter 18|10 pages

Main and Secondary Characters

chapter 19|14 pages

Subtext, Action, and Character

chapter 21|14 pages

The Primacy of Character over Action

The Non-American Screenplay

chapter 23|21 pages

Agency and the Other

chapter 27|16 pages

Digital Features

chapter 28|9 pages

Writing the Narrative Voice

chapter 29|8 pages

Rewriting