509 screenplays · 17 personality types · 8 craft dimensions

Screenwriting advice is one-size-fits-all. Your brain isn't.

Every resource below adapts to your personality type — showing which ones match how you learn, which ones will challenge you, and where to start.

Don't know? Browse freely — or pick just one to start
— guides personalized
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Cognitive matching

Every resource activates specific cognitive functions. We match these to your stack so you know which will click and which need a different entry point.

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Fit scoring

High / Medium / Low fit is based on measurable patterns from 509 scripts — not preference. High Fit means it addresses your type's specific gaps.

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Risk warnings

Some resources reinforce your type's blind spots. We flag these so you can approach them with the right expectations. Explore all 17 writer profiles →

Sorted by fit — highest match first
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Book Beginner
Struct Theme Char
Creating Character Arcs
Te Ni
K.M. Weiland ·2016
A beat-by-beat framework that welds character transformation to three-act structure. Three arc types — positive change, flat, and negative — each with specific structural requirements at every major turning point.
📖
Book Beginner
Char dialogue
Creating Unforgettable Characters
Ne Fi
Linda Seger ·1990
A research-driven character development guide spanning film, TV, novels, and advertising. Builds characters through backstory, psychology, paradox, and multi-dimensional traits rather than structural function.
📝
Essay Beginner
Struct Char
Dan Harmon's Story Circle
Ni Ne
Dan Harmon ·2009
The Hero's Journey compressed to eight steps arranged in a circle. A character-centric structural model that maps comfort/chaos and conscious/unconscious states, designed for repeatable TV episode plotting.
📝
Essay Intermediate
Struct pacing conflict
David Mamet Memo
Te Se
David Mamet ·2005
A blunt, profane memo demanding dramatic clarity. Three questions — Who wants what? What happens if they don't get it? Why now? — strip away everything that isn't drama.
👥
Community Beginner
Craft industry feedback
Done Deal Pro Forums
Fe Te
Done Deal Pro Community ·1999
A long-running screenwriting community forum where aspiring and working writers exchange craft advice, industry intel, and peer feedback — with occasional professional participation from agents, managers, and produced writers.
🧪
Technique Advanced
Char conflict
Externalize the Compulsion
Fi Ne
Narrative Therapy Adaptation
A narrative therapy technique adapted for character writing: separate a character's compulsive behavior from their identity, giving them agency over the problem rather than being defined by it.
📖
Book Intermediate
Char emotion
Focusing
Fi Si
Eugene Gendlin ·1978
A six-step body-awareness technique for accessing pre-verbal 'felt sense' — the vague physical knowing that precedes conscious thought. Adapted by writers to break creative blocks and find emotional truth in characters.
🧰
Tool Beginner
productivity
Focusmate
Fe Te
Focusmate Community ·2017
A virtual body-doubling platform that pairs you with a stranger for timed writing sessions. External accountability without external judgment — someone is watching you work, and that's enough.
📝
Essay Intermediate
Craft emotion industry
How to Take Script Notes (and Not Die Inside)
Fe Ti
John August & Craig Mazin (Scriptnotes) ·2015
A practical guide to receiving, interpreting, and surviving script feedback. Distinguishes between valid craft notes and subjective preferences, and builds the emotional resilience revision requires.
🔎
Case_study Advanced
Char Craft emotion
I May Destroy You (Process Analysis)
Fi Se
Michaela Coel ·2020
A case study of Michaela Coel's process creating I May Destroy You — full creative control, voice-note documentation, trauma as material, and therapeutic infrastructure that made the work possible.
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Book Intermediate
Struct emotion pacing
In the Blink of an Eye
Ni Fi
Walter Murch ·1995
A legendary film editor's philosophical exploration of why cuts work — prioritizing emotion over continuity, rhythm over rules, and the blink as a metaphor for how humans process visual information.
🎙️
Podcast Beginner
Struct Char Craft
Jacob Krueger Studio
Ne Fi
Jacob Krueger ·2011
A multi-modal screenwriting education platform centered on a free weekly podcast. Non-judgmental script analysis, voice development, and an approach that treats writing as both art and craft.
📰
Blog Beginner
Struct Craft industry
JohnAugust.com
Te Ne
John August ·2003
A comprehensive screenwriting blog from an Academy Award-nominated writer. 1,500+ posts covering craft, business, software tools, and professional wisdom — plus a script library with drafts, outlines, and finals.
🎬
Video Beginner
Struct Char dialogue
Lessons from the Screenplay
Ti Ne
Michael Tucker ·2016
YouTube video essays that break down why great screenplays work. Rigorous script analysis made accessible — identifying techniques, structural patterns, and character strategies in contemporary and classic films.
🧪
Technique Intermediate
Char dialogue emotion
Meisner Technique for Writers
Se Fe
Sanford Meisner (adapted)
An acting technique adapted for screenwriters. The repetition exercise — two actors echoing a phrase until genuine emotion emerges — teaches writers to hear subtext, write behavior instead of words, and create dialogue driven by emotional reality rather than information.
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Book Intermediate
Theme Char conflict
Psychology for Screenwriters
Ti Ne
William Indick ·2004
Applies Jungian archetypes, Freudian defense mechanisms, and Erikson's developmental stages to character construction — giving screenwriters a psychological toolkit for motivation, conflict, and transformation.
📖
Book Beginner
Struct Char engagement
Save the Cat!
Te Si
Blake Snyder ·2005
The most influential prescriptive screenwriting book of its generation. A 15-beat structure (the Beat Sheet), ten genre categories, and the principle that audiences must like your hero — all delivered with infectious enthusiasm.
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Book Beginner
Struct Char
Save the Cat! Writes a Novel
Te Si
Jessica Brody ·2018
Blake Snyder's 15-beat screenplay structure adapted for novels. Same Beat Sheet, longer form — with 20+ published novel breakdowns proving the template works across prose genres.
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Book Intermediate
Struct Char conflict
Screenwriting Unchained
Ni Te
Emmanuel Oberg ·2015
A fractal approach to screenplay structure that replaces page-number formulas with a unified dramatic principle: the same structural logic applies at story, sequence, and scene levels, adapted by story type.
🧰
Tool Beginner
productivity
Scrivener
Te Si
Literature & Latte ·2007
Writing software that organizes manuscripts, research, and notes in a single project. Binder navigation, corkboard planning, snapshot versioning, and flexible compilation — built for the way writers actually work.
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Book Advanced
emotion pacing engagement
Sculpting in Time
Ni Fi
Andrei Tarkovsky ·1986
A master filmmaker's philosophical meditation on cinema as the art of sculpting time. Rejects narrative convention in favor of temporal poetry, sensory honesty, and the pursuit of spiritual truth through the image.
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Book Intermediate
Struct Theme Char dialogue
Story
Te Ni
Robert McKee ·1997
The most comprehensive analytical treatment of screenwriting craft. McKee synthesizes structure, character, dialogue, and style into a unified theory of storytelling — demanding understanding before execution.
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Technique Intermediate
Craft productivity
Taika Waititi's 'Throw it Away' Method
Fi Ne
Taika Waititi
Write a draft, put it away for a year or more, then rewrite from memory without looking at the original. What you remember is what matters — what you forget was filler.
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Book Intermediate
Struct pacing
The 21st Century Screenplay
Ne Ti
Linda Aronson ·2010
The definitive guide to non-linear, parallel, and multi-protagonist screenplay structures. Covers flashback narratives, tandem stories, ensemble casts, and every structural innovation beyond three-act convention.
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Theory Intermediate
Struct pacing
The 60/40 Split Concept
Te Si
Jeff Howard
A pacing principle: the first 60% of a screenplay establishes and explores; the final 40% accelerates and resolves. No new elements after the midpoint — only escalation of what's already in play.
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Blog Beginner
Struct Craft industry
The Bitter Script Reader
Te Se
The Bitter Script Reader ·2009
Brutally honest script coverage and craft advice from a professional Hollywood reader. The mistakes that get scripts rejected — explained without sugarcoating by someone who reads hundreds of scripts a year.
🎬
Video Intermediate
emotion pacing engagement
The Cinema Cartography
Se Ni
The Cinema Cartography ·2016
YouTube video essays exploring visual storytelling — composition, color, cinematography, and editing as primary narrative tools. The visual grammar that most screenwriting books ignore.
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Book Intermediate
Char dialogue emotion
The Emotional Craft of Fiction
Fi Ne
Donald Maass ·2016
A literary agent's guide to creating emotional impact in fiction. 34 exercises targeting specific emotional modes — not 'show don't tell' but techniques for making readers FEEL specific things at specific moments.
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Book Advanced
emotion pacing engagement
The Empathic Screen
Ti Se
Vittorio Gallese & Michele Guerra ·2019
Neuroscience meets film theory. Mirror neurons, embodied simulation, and the brain science of why cinema physically affects audiences — how camera movement, close-ups, and editing trigger pre-cognitive bodily responses.
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Book Beginner
Char conflict
The Negative Traits Thesaurus
Si Fi
Angela Ackerman & Becca Puglisi ·2013
A reference catalog of 100+ character flaws — each with causes, associated behaviors, challenges, and arc implications. A brainstorming tool for building dimensional characters from their weaknesses up.
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Book Beginner
Craft industry
The Screenwriter's Bible
Te Si
David Trottier ·1998
Five books in one: screenwriting primer, formatting guide, spec writing guide, sales guide, and resource directory. The industry-standard reference for how a professional screenplay should look and function.
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Book Beginner
Struct Char
The Screenwriter's Workbook
Te Si
Syd Field ·1984
The exercise companion to Field's foundational Screenplay. Step-by-step workbook guiding writers through concept, character, structure, and dialogue — with exercises at every stage building toward a completed draft.
🧑‍🏫
Workshop Advanced
Char Craft emotion
The Technique (Dreamwork)
Fi Ni
Joan Scheckel & Kim Gillingham ·2000
Experiential filmmaking labs integrating Jungian dreamwork, somatic awareness, and collaborative creation. Replaces conflict-driven narrative theory with a feeling-first approach that accesses unconscious creative material.
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Film_study Advanced
emotion pacing engagement
The Witch & Saint Maud
Se Fi
Robert Eggers & Rose Glass (Analysis) ·2020
Case study analysis of two films where atmosphere, visual design, and sound replace conventional plot as the primary storytelling engine. How dread is built through sensory craft rather than narrative mechanics.
🧰
Tool Beginner
Craft productivity
Writer Emergency Pack
Ne Ti
John August ·2014
A deck of creative prompt cards for when you're stuck. Each card suggests a specific, actionable technique to get unstuck — from character-based solutions to structural pivots to pure creative provocation.
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Book Intermediate
Char dialogue emotion
Writing Subtext
Fi Ni
Linda Seger ·2011
A focused guide to writing what's beneath the surface — subtext in dialogue, visual imagery, setting, gesture, and silence. The art of making audiences understand what characters won't say.
🎓
Course Intermediate
Theme Char emotion
Writing with Intention
Fi Te
Jen Grisanti ·2016
A theme-driven screenwriting approach that starts with the writer's own emotional wound. Your recurring themes come from your psychology — understanding them makes every story you write more authentic and resonant.
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Book Beginner
Struct dialogue Craft
Your Screenplay Sucks!
Te Se
William M. Akers ·2008
A 100-point diagnostic checklist covering every dimension of screencraft — concept, character, structure, scenes, dialogue, and format. Blunt, specific, and designed to catch the problems you've been ignoring.
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Challenge Beginner
productivity
Zero Draft Thirty
Te Se
Scott Myers ·2013
A 30-day screenwriting challenge: write a complete zero draft (FADE IN to FADE OUT) in one month. Community accountability, daily motivation, and the principle that a terrible finished draft beats a perfect unfinished one.
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Book Intermediate
The Anatomy of Story
Ni Ti
John Truby ·2007
A holistic, organic approach to story structure that treats narrative as an interconnected living body — with character, theme, plot, world, and symbol as interdependent subsystems rather than mechanical parts.
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Book Beginner
Struct Theme Char
The Nutshell Technique
Ti Te
Jill Chamberlain ·2016
Turn a situation into a story. Eight interconnected elements on a single-page schematic reveal whether your screenplay has a genuine story engine — or just a premise going nowhere.
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Course 8h 1m
Struct Char dialogue Craft Process
Aaron Sorkin Teaches Screenwriting
Fe Te
Aaron Sorkin ·2016
Intention and obstacle as the drive shaft of every scene, every character, every story. The Oscar-winning writer of The Social Network and The West Wing teaches screenwriting as drama — not events, not story, but drama — through 35 video lessons, case studies from his own work, and a live writers' room session.
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Video 1h 30m
Struct Theme Char
Endings: The Good, the Bad, and the Insanely Great
Ti Ni
Michael Arndt ·2017
Three sets of stakes — external, internal, philosophical — converging in a two-minute climax where underdog values overturn dominant values. The Oscar-winning writer of Little Miss Sunshine and Toy Story 3 reverse-engineers what makes endings transcend plot resolution and become meaningful, analyzing Star Wars, The Graduate, and his own film in forensic detail.
🎤
Lecture 1h 10m
Theme Craft Process
Charlie Kaufman: Screenwriters' Lecture
Fi Ne
Charlie Kaufman ·2011
Say who you are. The Oscar-winning writer of Eternal Sunshine, Being John Malkovich, and Adaptation delivers an anti-lecture on screenwriting — rejecting templates, formulas, and the desire to be liked in favor of radical authenticity, vulnerability as artistic purpose, and the terrifying freedom of not knowing what you're doing.
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Book Beginner
Craft Process
Writing from the Inside Out
Fi Si
Dennis Palumbo ·2000
A Hollywood screenwriter turned licensed psychotherapist offers the writer's equivalent of therapy — not craft rules or structural formulas, but a compassionate, experience-grounded guide to the psychological terrain every writer navigates: writer's block, procrastination, self-doubt, envy, fear of rejection, the inner critic, and the quiet revelation that you already have everything you need.
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Book Intermediate
Struct emotion visual
The Visual Story
Se Ti
Bruce Block ·2007
Master seven visual components — space, line, shape, tone, color, movement, rhythm — and use the principle of contrast and affinity to make your visual structure mirror your narrative structure.
🎙️
Podcast 1h
Struct Char dialogue Craft
Scriptnotes
Te Ne
John August & Craig Mazin ·2011
Two working screenwriters discuss craft, business, and the full ecosystem of professional screenwriting — from three-page feedback to deep-dive film analysis to industry realities.
🎙️
Podcast 50 min
Theme Char Craft emotion
The Screenwriting Life
Fe Ni
Meg LeFauve & Lorien McKenna ·2020
Two veteran writer-producers discuss not just craft and business, but the emotional life of being a creative — from imposter syndrome to rejection resilience to sustaining a career without losing yourself.
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Book Intermediate
Char emotion originality
Impro
Se Fi
Keith Johnstone ·1979
Unlock the spontaneity that education froze. Status dynamics, narrative reincorporation, and mask work reveal how to generate authentic character behavior by switching off the censoring intellect.
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Book Intermediate
Struct Theme Char
Inside Story
Ni Fi
Dara Marks ·2007
Theme is not decoration — it's the engine. Build screenplays from the inside out by identifying thematic intention first, then letting the protagonist's fatal flaw generate both character arc and plot structure.
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Book Beginner
Char Craft originality
On Writing
Se Fi
Stephen King ·2000
Write daily, read constantly, and let characters drive story. A working writer's toolbox — vocabulary, grammar, situation-first drafting, and the discipline of 2,000 words a day, every day.
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Book Intermediate
Struct Char originality
Writing the Character-Centered Screenplay
Ne Fi
Andrew Horton ·1999
Reject the plot-first paradigm. Build screenplays from character as an ongoing process of 'becoming' — multi-voiced, contradictory, and carnivalesque — using Bakhtin's theory as the foundation.
🧑‍🏫
Workshop Intermediate
Struct Char Craft conflict
Creative Integration Workshops
Te Fi
Corey Mandell ·2010
Identify whether you're a conceptual or intuitive writer — then systematically strengthen your weaker creative muscle through intensive exercises designed to produce professional-level scripts.
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Book Advanced
Char dialogue emotion
Directing Actors
Fe Se
Judith Weston ·1996
Actors can control actions, not emotions. Use transitive verbs, 'as if' adjustments, and relationship-centered script analysis to guide performances from the inside out — process over results.
📰
Blog Beginner
Struct Char Craft
Go Into The Story
Te Ne
Scott Myers ·2008
Daily screenwriting blog covering craft, business, and the writing life — from scene analysis and character workshops to interviews with working screenwriters. The most consistent long-form screenwriting education on the internet.
🗂️
Articles Beginner
Struct Char originality
Improvising Screenplays
Ne Se
Brett Wean ·2018
Apply improv principles — 'yes and,' heightening, game of the scene — directly to screenwriting. Short, practical essays that bridge the gap between spontaneous performance and deliberate craft.
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Essays Beginner
Struct Char originality
LocalScriptMan
Fi Ne
Lucas Strunc ·2020
Indie screenwriter essays and video breakdowns analyzing craft from a working writer's perspective — grounded, practical, and refreshingly honest about the realities of writing outside the studio system.
📖
Book Intermediate
Char emotion originality
Method Writing
Fi Se
Jack Grapes ·2005
Dissolve the membrane between 'deep voice' (authentic creative self) and 'surface voice' (performing self). Four foundational concepts — Images, Show Don't Tell, The Spill, and the Nasal Demon — unlock raw, unfiltered writing that bypasses intellectual control.
🎬
Video 1h 20m
Struct Char premise
Michael Arndt: Beginnings & Craft Lectures
Ni Te
Michael Arndt ·2014
The Oscar-winning writer of Little Miss Sunshine and Toy Story 3 teaches how great stories begin — not with plot but with character in stasis — and shares hard-won lessons from developing Toy Story 3 at Pixar.
🎬
Video 15 min
Struct Theme Char dialogue
Practical Screenwriting
Te Si
Tyler Mowery ·2018
Accessible video essays breaking down screenwriting craft through film analysis — theme, character arcs, dialogue technique, and story structure explained through specific movie examples.
📖
Book Beginner
Struct Char premise
Save the Cat! Writes for TV
Te Si
Jamie Nash ·2022
Blake Snyder's beat sheet adapted for television — from pilot structure to series arcs. Prescriptive, template-driven, and genre-aware, with beat sheets for sitcoms, dramas, limited series, and procedurals.
📖
Book Intermediate
Struct Theme Char emotion
Story Genius / Wired for Story
Ni Fi
Lisa Cron ·2016
Stories work because the brain is wired to learn through narrative — not plot but the protagonist's internal struggle. Build stories from the inside out: the character's misbelief first, then the scenes that challenge it.
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Book Beginner
emotion premise originality
The Artist's Way
Fi Si
Julia Cameron ·1992
Recover your creative self through Morning Pages, Artist Dates, and a 12-week program that treats creative block as a spiritual wound — not a productivity problem.
🎙️
Podcast 2h
Struct Char emotion originality
The Daniels / Draft Zero Analysis
Ne Fi
The Daniels (analyzed by Draft Zero podcast) ·2023
Deep-dive craft analysis of Everything Everywhere All At Once — how the Daniels use maximalist structure to serve a minimalist emotional core. Reverse-engineers the film's multiverse mechanics as character development technology.
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Book Beginner
Char conflict premise
The Idea
Te Ni
Erik Bork ·2018
Before you write a single scene, test your concept against seven elements: punishing, relatable, original, believable, life-altering, entertaining, and meaningful. If your idea doesn't pass the PROBLEM test, no amount of craft will save it.
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Book Intermediate
Struct Theme Char emotion
The Science of Storytelling
Ni Fi
Will Storr ·2019
A neuroscience-grounded exploration of why stories captivate the human brain. Storr dismantles the machinery of narrative from the inside out — showing how change triggers attention, how flawed mental models drive character, and how a single 'sacred flaw' can generate an entire plot.
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Book Beginner
Struct Char dialogue Craft
The Coffee Break Screenwriter
Se Te
Pilar Alessandra ·2016
A hands-on, exercise-driven screenwriting guide that breaks the entire process — from concept to final polish — into ten-minute writing sprints. No grand theory, no formulas: just practical tools that get pages written.
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Book Intermediate
Struct
The Sequence Approach
Ti Si
Paul Gulino ·2004
The eight-sequence structure beneath three-act screenplay architecture — each sequence functioning as a mini-movie with its own setup, conflict, and resolution. The missing structural layer between acts and scenes.
🎙️
Podcast 1h 30m
Struct Theme Char
How to Write a Movie
Ni Fe
Craig Mazin ·2019
A solo masterclass from the writer of Chernobyl and The Last of Us, arguing that structure is not a tool but a symptom — the inevitable consequence of a character wrestling with a central dramatic argument. Mazin dismantles prescriptive formulas and rebuilds screenwriting from theme outward.
🎓
Course Beginner
Struct Craft premise
Writing the Short
Te Se
John Warren (Young Screenwriters) ·2020
Structured course for writing short film screenplays — from concept through finished draft. Focused on the specific craft requirements of short-form storytelling where every page matters exponentially more.
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Book Beginner
Craft premise
2k to 10k: Writing Faster, Writing Better, and Writing More of What You Love
Te Si
Rachel Aaron ·2012
Triple your daily word count through three principles: knowledge (know what you'll write before you sit down), time (track when you write best), and enthusiasm (only write scenes that excite you). Data-driven writing productivity.
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Technique Advanced
Char emotion conflict
Adler 'Size' for Boundary Scenes
Fe Se
Stella Adler technique (adapted)
Apply Stella Adler's concept of 'size' — the emotional magnitude and stakes appropriate to each scene — to write boundary scenes (turning points, act breaks) with the dramatic weight they require.
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Book Intermediate
Struct Craft premise
Adventures in the Screen Trade
Ne Te
William Goldman ·1983
'Nobody knows anything.' The legendary screenwriter of Butch Cassidy, All the President's Men, and The Princess Bride delivers a brutally honest insider account of Hollywood — part memoir, part craft manual, part industry demolition.
🎙️
Podcast 45 min
Craft premise
Children of Tendu
Te Fe
Javier Grillo-Marxuach & Jose Molina ·2014
Two veteran TV writers demystify the television staffing process — from getting hired to surviving the writers' room to navigating showrunner relationships. The most specific TV business podcast in existence.
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Book Beginner
Struct emotion conflict
Conflict & Suspense
Te Se
James Scott Bell ·2012
Master the mechanics of conflict and suspense — from scene-level tension building to story-level stakes escalation. Practical, example-rich craft manual for the dimensions that keep readers turning pages.