The Screenwriter’s Workbook (Revised)

Title: The Screenwriter’s Workbook (Revised)
Author: Syd Field
Publisher: Delta
ISBN-10: 0385339046
ISBN-13: 978-0385339049
My Rating - 5 plus

After an amazing twenty-two year run, the original classic 1984 Screenwriter’s Workbook (Dell Trade Paperback) was revised and updated in 2006. It might only weigh 7 ounces, but it’s jam-packed with EVERYTHING you need to know in order to write a successful, salable script.

The master of screenwriting has outdone himself! Hang on, as we go on a journey with “the most sought-after screenwriting teacher in the world,” touts the Hollywood Reporter. Field will take you from the first crucial pages to the final act in a clear-cut, systematic manner.

Although this review is for a “how-to-write” book, Field correctly terms it as a “what-to-do” book. In other words, “if you have an idea for a screenplay, and you don’t know what to do with it, this book tells you what you have to do in order to write a successful screenplay. “How” you do it is up to you.”

Including, of course, all the necessary components of the first edition, namely, defining your idea, creating characters, dialogues, flashbacks, voice-overs, subtitles and flash forwards, this edition introduces an extra element - “the confrontation”, dividing “Writing Act II” from the first edition into two separate sections. The book itself is divided into two parts - “Preparation” and “Execution”.

Referencing this book when I first started writing my screenplay, I found the technique of using 3×5 index cards to be very beneficial in structuring the first act and writing the back story (what happens a day, week or hour before the story begins). The author uses this technique through the process, along with various other constructive exercises.

Personal experiences pepper Field’s writing. For instance, find out why a bumble bee brought the author to tears and how its impact changed the way he looked at his writing. It will make you examine your writing in a whole new light.

I’ve yet to try working in one of Field’s favorite settings, that of my bathtub (No, he worked in his). He says he’s not the only one who writes, edits and prepares new material during long hot baths. It seems Dalton Trumbo (Roman Holiday {one of my all time favorite films}, Johnny Got His Gun {which starred Timothy Bottoms, Diane Varsi and Jason Robards}, etc.) one of Hollywood’s highest paid writers of the 40s, and Nick Meyer (Star Trek II, Time After Time, The Seven-Percent Solution) favored this spot as well. It certainly worked for them. One never knows, it just might be a solution to my writer’s block, provided I don’t get the pages wet, rendering them illegible.

The Screenwriter’s Workbook contains citations from 17 other books, including: Annie Hall by Woody Allen, Apocalypse Now by Francis Ford Coppola, This Side of Paradise by F. Scott Fitzgerald and Body Heat by Kathleen Turner. In addition, 21 authors have cited The Screenwriter’s Workbook within their books, and are made mention of by Field.