INDUSTRY RESOURCES

FOR THOSE IN NEED

Last updated: 6/17/24

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REGULARLY SCHEDULED PROGRAMMING

Why pay thousands of dollars for a degree when you can get the list of books for free?
(Sorry, the books aren’t free.)

Be the Change

On Storytelling

  • Poetics by Aristotle

  • Fortunately by Remy Charlie

  • The Heroine’s Journey by Maureen Murdock

  • The Hero with a Thousand Faces by Joseph Campbell

  • The Writer’s Journey by Christopher Vogler

  • The Art of Dramatic Writing by Lajos Egri

  • Inside Story by Dara Marks

  • This Year You Write Your Novel by Walter Mosley

  • A Swim in a Pond in the Rain by George Saunders

  • Bird by Bird by Ann LaMott

  • On Writing by Stephen King

  • What Writers Really Do When They Write by George Saunders (The Guardian, March 4, 2017)

On Screenwriting

  • The Tools of Screenwriting by David Howard & Edward Mabley

  • Story by Robert McKee

  • Rewrite by Paul Chitlik

  • Screenwriting is Rewriting by Jack Epps, Jr.

  • Making a Good Script Great by Linda Seger

  • The New Elements of Standard Screenplay Format by Jean-Paul Ouellette

  • Crafting Short Screenplays that Connect by Claudia Hunter Johnson

  • The Hollywood Standard by Christopher Riley

  • Save the Cat by Blake Snyder

  • The Screenplay by Margaret Mehring (out of print)

  • Screenwriting: The Sequence Approach by Paul Gulino

  • How to Build a Great Screenplay by David Howard

  • Writing for the TV Drama Series by Pamela Douglas

  • The TV Writer’s Workbook by Ellen Sandler

  • 39 Steps to Better Screenwriting by Paul Chitlik

  • The Anatomy of Story by John Truby

  • Writing Screenplays that Sell by Michael Hauge

  • Your Screenplay Sucks by William Akers

On Animation

  • Gardner’s Guide to Animation Scriptwriting by Marilyn Webber

  • How to Write for Animation by Jeffrey Scott

On Comics

  • The Art of Comic Book Writing by Mark Kneece

  • Comics and Sequential Art by Will Eisner

  • Understanding Comics by Scott McCloud

  • Making Comics by Scott McCloud

  • Words for Pictures by Brian Michael Bendis

  • Panel One: Comic Book Scripts by Top Writers, featuring scripts by Kurt Busiek, Neil Gaiman, Nat Gertler, Dwayne McDuffie, Trina Robbins, Greg Rucka, Jeff Smith, Kevin Smith, and Marv Wolfman

On Filmmaking

  • Creative Filmmaking from the Inside Out by Jed Dannenbaum, Caroll Hodge, & Doe Mayer

  • On Film-making by Alexander Mackendrick

  • On Directing Film by David Mamet

  • A Practical Handbook for the Actor by Melissa Bruder, Lee Michael Cohn, Madeleine Olneck, Nathaniel Pollack, Robert Previtio, Scott Zigler, & David Mamet

  • Respect for Acting by Uta Hagen

  • To the Actor by Chekhov

  • Directing Actors by Judith Weston

  • A Sense of Direction: Some Observations on the Art of Directing by William Ball

  • If It’s Purple, Someone’s Gonna Die by Patti Bellatoni

On the Business

  • The Business of Television by Ken Basin

  • I Will Not Read Your Fucking Script by Josh Olson (Village Voice, September 9, 2009)

  • I Got You Covered: The Premiere and Fun Guide to Script Coverage, Notes, and Story Analysis by Beverly Neufeld

  • Jaws in Space: Powerful Pitching for Film & TV Screenwriters by Charles Harris

  • Pitching Hollywood by Jonathan Koch, Robert Kosberg, & Tanya Meurur Norman

  • Contracts for the Film & Television Industry by Mark Litwak

  • Dealmaking in the Film & Television Industry by Mark Litwak

  • Adventures in the Screen Trade by William Goldman

  • Which Lie Did I Tell? by William Goldman

  • The Mailroom by David Rensin

  • The Hollywood Assistant’s Handbook by Hillary Stamm & Peter Nowalk

  • The Writers’ Room Survival Guide by Niceole Levy

  • Film School: The True Story of a Midwestern Family Man who Went to the World’s Most Famous Film School, Fell Flat on His Face, Had a Stroke, and Sold a Television Series to CBS by Steve Boman

  • Difficult Men: Behind the Scenes of a Creative Revolution: From The Sopranos and The Wire to Mad Men and Breaking Bad by Brett Martin

  • Pictures at a Revolution: Five Movies and the Birth of the New Hollywood by Mark Harris

  • Best. Movie Year. Ever.: How 1999 Blew Up the Big Screen by Brian Raftery

  • Notes on Notes by John August & Craig Mazin (Scriptnotes, May 7, 2019)

The Trades (& more)

  • The Hollywood Reporter

  • Variety

  • Deadline

  • The Wrap

  • The Ankler

  • Puck

Script Databases