Advanced Screenwriting: Taking Your Writing to the Academy Award Level Paperback – October 1, 2003

Linda Seger's ADVANCED SCREENWRITING makes her the darling of the studios. The darling of the independent filmmakers at that.The book is what I call the collective resources of cultural storytelling for the motion pictures. Every people from various culutres have a unique way of telling their stories.No one tells a villager how to paint what's in their culture. They just paint. They just do sculpture the way they know how to sculpt. They draw the way they draw. Everyone's art is different.A MUST READ!

I am giving this one star not because I hated it, but because it should have been titled "Basic Screenwriting", not Advanced. When I buy a book titled "Advanced Screenwriting" I am assuming the content therein is beyond what is in most basic screenwriting books.. On page three or around there, Dr. Seger introduces the reader to the "linear structure of dramatic story-telling"... Really?? Why in the f*** would I be reading "Advanced Screenwriting" if I didn't know what that was?? In summary, it's not a bad book , there is useful information in it, but it is NOT Advanced, it's Basic, and if you want "Basic" there are better options out there.

This book is the best book I've read on screenwriting. Helps refine one's screenwriting. Very strong examples and clear direction ennabling the reader to critically analyze their own scripts as well as movies. All in all, a wonderful, must-have tool for serious screenwriters.

Clear, concise, easily read. The information is fantastic and stimulates one's mind to new directions and ideas to improve one's script! A must read for everyone.

Linda Seger provides outstanding guidance for aspiring screenwriters.

Amazing book. Strongly recommend.

Lot's of subtlety

I'm not familiar with Linda Seger's other books, but she does go on quite a bit about previous material she has written in "Advanced Screenwriting". It turns me off a bit when authors want to plug themselves to death in their other books - I mean, why can't we separate from what we've already written or else sell both books as a package - but I'm almost at the end of this, and I have to say I did find it quite insightful. I'm attempting a draft of a screenplay I'm really excited about writing and I really wanted to raise my game this time around, but while I feel I do have the fundamentals down pat, I still don't think I feel confident enough to attempt it based on just this book. She offers quite a lot of advice and tips, which are great, but in the end I feel like... wow, where to start? I do like the topics covered and I like that she uses recent films versus older films as reference, but I feel like she dwells too much on her other book "Making a Good Script Great" (which I don't have).Ah well. Still good. Also, FAR too many typos to be believed in this book. It distracted somewhat after awhile. I really was taken aback. I want to ask her editor... "What's up with that??"

This book has an awful title: do not expect to read it and your next draft to be at award level (whatever that really means). However, there are some useful insights into improving your script when you're looking to go beyond the structurally focused books which are ten a penny. It's worth reading. There is a minor but woeful analysis of MULHOLLAND DRIVE, but it doesn't spoil things.