Cut to the Chase

Does the world really need another screenwriting textbook? Normally, I'd be skeptical about a new release like this, but this time, it's personal: I'm in it.

I've been teaching in the UCLA Extension Writers' Program for 17 years, and over that time have come to know a number of remarkable instructors there. One thing that's always impressed me about the program is that its teachers are working professionals: credited screenwriters, producers, directors, and industry executives. These are people who teach from experience, not theory.

The Program's director Linda Venis gathered a group of us instructors together to create this book. Cut to the Chase, which guides screenwriters through the process of writing a feature, from inception to completion and to approaching the market with it, is a distillation of the Programs' classes in textbook form, and represents a kind of contemporary screenwriting brain trust. Its grasp of craft goes wide and deep; its references are up to date and its sensibility is no-nonsense and pragmatic.

I was on the editorial board for the project and a "core author," so I had some say in both how the book was organized and how individual chapters were executed. I wrote the opening chapter ("Hollywood Storytelling: Its Enduring Appeal and Universal Principles") and a chapter called "Deepening Characters and Defining Their Arcs." Other chapters, written by 13 other instructors, cover topics ranging from how to structure a script to how to sustain a feature film writing career.

Instructors can be competitive. I know I often approach such textbooks with a "what does this guy think he knows that I don't know?" attitude. So I'm not blowing smoke when I offer this one honest testimonial: I'm reading the book now, dog-earring pages and underlining passages. Apparently, my fellow instructors do know something... and I'm finding their expertise genuinely helpful as I work on a new project of my own.

A companion volume, Inside the Room: Writing Television with the Pros at UCLA Extension Writers' Program has just been published as well. Both are available now, wherever quality books are sold.

Comments

[Zach]

Haha. "Universal Principles." You sly dog, you.

[mernitman]

Zach: Weirdly enough, I wasn't being sly, but wholly unconscious when I came up with that subtitle, and only realized what my sub-brain had done after the fact. I have GOT to cut down on that ganja...

[E.C. Henry]

Just bought your latest book, "Cut to the Chase" via the Amazon link you provided in this blog post.

HUGE fan of "Writing the Romantic Comedy" which you wrote years ago. Wish you would write an updated version...

Can't wait to read "Cut to the Chase". Always open to hear what the pros have to say about how business should be done in all aspects of moviemaking.

[mernitman]

EC: Thank you for ordering the new book! Sadly, I've been unable to convince Harper (the publisher for WTRC) to publish an updated version - ironically, as their pretzel logic goes, because the original volume is still selling... Anyway, I think you'll find the UCLA book helpful and entertaining.