Writing the Great American Screenplay

By: Richard Walter, William Froug

Narrated by: Richard Walter, William Froug

Writers once dreamed of writing novels. Now screenplays top the dream list. Hear two top teachers explain the sometimes ungentle art of writing salable movie and television scripts.

Screenwriting: How to Move Your Tale
In this fast-moving and entertaining seminar, Richard Walter praises commercial film and TV for catering to its audience. Popularity, he says, comes directly from the story. "Everything is important," he says, "but none of it means anything outside the context of the story." His expert advice on structure, lie through your teeth, integrate, and think beginnings, middles, and ends, will help your screenplay take a quantum leap in the direction of success.

Screenwriting Tricks of the Trade
Emmy winner William Froug presents practical, write-from-the-gut advice that resounds with experience and integrity. "What you feel is what counts," says Froug. He advises how to:

Make the dialogue lean

Get intimate with your characters

Keep the dramatic tension in your script

Reveal information only when it has impact

Use the techniques of foreshadowing and surprise

Put aside formulas and get your best script down on paper

©1993 William Froug, 1990 Richard Walter (P)2003 Writer's AudioShop

Enjoyable to listen to, but not much use.

I am a sitcom writer, interested in writing screenplays.

I found these two lectures to be okay to listen to, but more on a motivational level. There was very little substance and very few practical suggestions. In the end, I thought there was really no merit. (And I found the first lecturer actually annoying).

More useful books on writing from Audible I found to be:
Stein on Writing - for fiction and non-fiction
Story by Robert McKee - for screenplays
The Hero's 2 Journeys - screenplays, Hauge & Vogler