The Screenwriter's Workbook

Rating:
Summary: This is it!
Review: At first I was reluctant to tell how good this book is for a beginning screenwriter. Why would I want to share that with my competition? But then I thought of all the bad movies I've seen. The more books I read on screenwriting, the more I realize the value of this book. I always thought this was a good book; an easy read with great exercises to make you think the entire story thru. After reading a few others, I wonder where I'd be without this book. The others are good for enhancing my existing "Words on Paper" draft, but, I doubt I'd have a complete draft if I had started with those books. They all mention the same principles Syd mentions (Grab the reader in the 1st 10 pages, show instead of tell, etc.). But they only tell me what to do, Syd provides tools so you learn how to do it. Also, one book had a pretty narrow view of how a story should be written. I think that would have stifled the writing process had I read this when beginning my screenplay. While Syd suggests a basic structure to follow, the content is totally up to you. Also, he gives advice, not hard/fast rules.

Rating:
Summary: Buy this book!
Review: Field's how-to books were recommended to me by another screenwriter and this one seemed to have diagrams and new info. My weakness was on structure. Field gives a pretty formulaic structure with numbers which is working for me right now. It did help me to know where to place scenes and events.

It would have been helpful to have options other than the standard three-act explored or at least mentioned.

If you are looking for structure knowledge, read it but I wouldn't be limited by it.

Rating:
Summary: Useful for Beginner Me
Review: Field's how-to books were recommended to me by another screenwriter and this one seemed to have diagrams and new info. My weakness was on structure. Field gives a pretty formulaic structure with numbers which is working for me right now. It did help me to know where to place scenes and events.

It would have been helpful to have options other than the standard three-act explored or at least mentioned.

If you are looking for structure knowledge, read it but I wouldn't be limited by it.

Rating:
Summary: A wonderful guide for anyone writing a screenplay.
Review: I had been struggling to write a screenplay for a long time when a friend recommended Syd's book. I was totally blown away. The tools needed for actually writing a script were presented in clear and lucid language, without telling you how you should do something. Chapter by chapter takes you one step more into the creative innards of screenwriting. If I had four hands, I'd give this book eight thumbs up. It's now my constant companion. Since that time, I've finished the screenplay I'd been struggling so hard with. Thanks, Syd -- keep 'em coming.

Rating:
Summary: A must read!
Review: I recommend anyone wanting to write a script to read this book along with his others. He makes the process so easy. From the beginning to the end. He will take you step by step in the process and make each step easy and great. This book and his other book Screenplay are what they use in film schools and I can see why. Some authors try to impress you with their knowledge of the subject while confusing you, and Syd Field explains things so that we can all understand.

Rating:
Summary: FANTASTIC!
Review: I've been looking for this book for years. All the other books I've read are only theoretical BS! This book tells it like it is, and guides you through the entire process of writing a script. GET THIS BOOK, IT'S WORTH EVERY PENNY!

Rating:
Summary: for beginners, yes, but helpful if used with caution
Review: It is unfair to criticize a book for containing only the basics. Beginning writers have to learn the fundamentals somewhere. An intermediate book would be a bad book for an absolute beginner. The advantage of this book over other beginning books is that it does not bob and weave over every point for fear of being wrong.
This book is also criticized for its use of the three-act structure. In fact, however, Field implicitly acknowledges the inadequacy of this structure, although he invents other terms to hide this fact. "Act II is twice the length of Acts I and III; it is a unit of action that is 60 pages long" (p. 122). This makes it 60% of the whole screenplay. But then, Act II is broken into two parts, called "First Half" and "Second Half". The turning point that leads from one to the other, Field calls "the midpoint" (p.131). First Half and Second Half, moreover, are divided by a "pinch" (p. 155). So, in fact, Field's structure is not the boring work turned out by so many screenwriters, in which something happens on page 20, something further happens on page 80, and the entire second act marches in place or repeats the same impressions over and over with additional behavior in different places. In Field's paradigm, some important development occurs every 15 to 20 pages. These points are illustrated by extended examples from a number of movies. And in fact, these examples occupy about 80% of the space in this very short book.

Still, this (six Act?) structure may be too rigid for experienced screenwriters. Why not have several things happen in a row? If you've got enough material, you can do it. The problem with most beginners is, they don't invent a long enough story or a story with enough events or steps in it. Being presented with a structure like Field's at least forces such writers to come up with something! But it also gives aid and comfort to those people who think it is a sign of quality to throw out all structure and write a film in which nothing happens and even the characters repeat themselves endlessly.

In short, beginning screenwriters will find this book less vague than many other beginning books. The only trap is to avoid both the extremes of (a) thinking that every screenplay has to fit Field's mold or (b) thinking that you can do anything and get away with it.


Rating:
Summary: Useful in after reading Syd's Screenplay
Review: This book is most useful because it makes you work with the structure that Syd Field expounded in his preceding book Screenplay. This book introduces an additional element from the first book - what he calls the "confrontation". It divides the second act into two halves.

Syd Field recommends using 3x5 cards with a sentence describing what happens - one card for each 2 pages of screenplay. It is a method that some people find limiting, others may find it liberating. It allows you to "edit" your movie by shuffling cards before you ever put a word of dialog onto paper.

The book is structured around writing each act in succession. The weakness is that he does not address in enough detail the editing process. This is probably because Syd Field writes from the perspective of a consumer of writing - that is, a reader of screenplays for a studio.

Editing is something that some successful writers know almost nothing about. Examples are Stephen King and Ray Bradbury. They have the genius to write in one draft.

Syd Field gets a lot of bad reviews on Amazon, because he focuses on the three act structure, turning on two plot points. Many would-be writers want to break the mold. Few movies that get made break with the structure (Pulp Fiction being everyone's favorite example of a movie not structured in three acts). Most movies are in three acts.