CHOOSING YOUR STORY

Mardik Martin Start with a Conflict (edited by Hunter Hughes)
Hal Ackerman The Cringe Exercise
Alan Watt Trusting Yourself
Braf Riddell Note Card R&D
Chandus Jsckson Concept Is King
Barri Evins When Harry Met Sally
Christina M. Kim The Comfort Zone
Paula C. Brancato Finding Your Story

GET WRITING

Kim Krizian Binding and Gagging the Internal Critic
Wesley Strick The Talking Cure
Beth Serlin The Almighty Verb
Alexander Woo Throw the Book Away
Daniel Calvisi Feeling the Music
Glenn M. Benest It’s the Read—Writing Great Film Narrative
Nicholas Kazan Dream On
William M. Akers Random Thoughts
Susan Kouguell Analyzing Your Characters
Kevin Cecil The Power of Negative Thinking
Hester Schell When Great Writing Meets a Great Actor: Writing for a Star
Brad Schreiber Police Investigation
Mark Sevi Write Truthfully in Imaginary Circumstances: The Mythology Inside You
Sam Zalutsky Postcards from the Edge of Creativity
Coleman Hough Found in Translation

STRUCTURE

Chris Soth The Most Important Thing I Know and Teach
David Trottier The Character / Action Grid
Jim Herzfeld Writing in the Dark
Linda Seger The Newspaper Exercise
Neil Landau 21 Questions to Keep You on Track
Barbara Schiffman Key Things to Know About Your Script Before You Write
Marilyn Horowitz Four Magic Questions of Screenwriting
Richard Stefanik Creating Unpredictability Using Subgoals and Plot Twists
Michael Ajakwe, Jr. Your Outline Is Your Lifeline
James V. Hart The Tool Kit—Resuscitative Remedy for Writer’s Block and Blank-Page Elimination
Bonnie MacBird The Genre Game

THEME

Danny Rubin How to Move a Pile of Dirt
Karey Kirkpatrick The Emotionally Charged Icon
Michael Hauge True Love
Jen Grisanti Finding Universal Themes
Steven Rivele Refining the Idea
Barry Brodsky The Thematic Line of Dialogue
Karl Iglesias The Emotional Outline
Paul Chitlik Writing from Experience, or Grandma’s Teeth Fell Into the Soup Again
Michael Ray Brown Change Your Perspective
Scott Anderson The Union of Opposites
Michael Feit Dougan From End to End: The Creative Compass

CRAFTING SCENES

Michael Genet Rhythms, Levels and the Proper Respect
Colleen McGuinness Some Things Are Better Left Unsaid
Tommy Swerdlow Self-Knowledge Availed Us Plenty
Sara Caldwell What Happens Next?
Craig Kellum Scenes as Concepts
David Atkins Crafting the Kick-Ass Scene
Larry Hama Visual Storytelling
Allison Burnett What Lies Beneath
Stephen V. Duncan Write Cinematic Scenes
T.J. Lynch I Know What You’re Thinking: Dialogue, Context, Subtext
Valerie Alexander One-Page Character Inrtoduction
Howard Allen Better Than Irony

CHARACTER DEVELOPMENT

Syd Field On Creating Character
Bill Johnson Give Me a Dramatic Truth or Give Me Death!
Linda Cowgill Creating Character Who Work for You, Not Against You
Madeline DiMaggio Approach Character Like an Actor… from the Inside Out!
Billy Mernit The Character’s Trailer Shot
Christine Conradt The Scene That Doesn’t Exist
James Bonnet The Key to Charismatic Character
Glenn Gers Go Ask Rosenkrantz
David Skelly Character Bones
Marilyn R. Atlas The Riddle of the Sphinx
Douglas J. Eboch The Character Diary
Laura Scheiner Getting Inside Your Character’s Head by Becoming Her Pen
Pamela Gray Life Before FADE IN:
Richard Walter Loving and Loathing—How to Get Into Your Characters
Leslie Lehr Getting to Know Your Character

VERBAL AND NONVERBAL COMMUNICATION

Amy Holden Jones Find Your Inner Actor
Peter Briggs On Dialoguing, the Screenwriting Anarchist’s Way
Andrew Osborne Nonverbal Communication
Mark Evan Schwartz The Big Eavesdrop
William C. Martell The Twitch: Objects as Emotions
Aydrea Walden ten Bosch Funny Faces: Tips on Writing Animation
David Freeman False Emotion
Judy Kellem Building Between the Lines
Steve Kaplan Using Metaphors in Comedy
Jennifer Skelly Pick Up a Party Line

REVISION

Pilar Alessandra Backward Brainstorming
Paul Guay Hurt Me, Hurt Me! (Oh, and Help Me Make My Script Better)
Jim Strain The Jewel Case Outline
Jayce Bartok “’Aloud,’ He Cried!”
Charles Deemer Screenwriters: Stop Shooting Yourself in the Foot!
Ken Rotcop The First Ten Pages
Billy Frolick Prose (and Cons)
Peter Myers What to Do When You’re Stuck on a Creative Problem
Devorah Cutler-Rubenstein Button It—The Cure for Overwriting
Glen Mazzara Finishing a Script—The Actor Pass

NOW WHAT?

Bill Lundy Creating the Killer Log Line
Heather Hale What If It Were Your Money
Michele Wallerstein How to Find and Get an Agent

Author Websites
Acknowledgments