The best screenwriters have always been great readers. Watching sitcoms or mind-numbing reality shows won’t do. Your experience alone won’t always bail you out either; you can’t experience everything. You need to read. A lot. Here are a few books on the craft of storytelling. Enjoy.
SCREENWRITER’S BOOKSHELF
Poetics, by Aristotle
The Hero with a Thousand Faces, by Joseph Campbell
Anatomy of Story, by John Truby
The Short Screenplay, by Daniel Gurskis
Three Uses of the Knife, by David Mamet
The Screenwriter Looks at the Screenwriter (Interviews
with screenwriters), by William Froug
The Art of Dramatic Writing, by Lajos Egri
Four Screenplays, by Syd Field
3 Screenplays, by Richard Price
books-to-read (printable version)
