Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:

This is a comprehensive and highly practical screenwriting manual. An eagerly anticipated successor to the authors internationally acclaimed book Scriptwriting Updated, it covers classic to avant-garde scripts, from The African Queen and Tootsie to 21 Grams, Pulp Fiction, Memento, and Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind. Whether you want to write features, shorts, adaptations, genre films, ensemble films, blockbusters, or art house movies, this book is your road map, it takes you all the way from choosing a brilliant idea to plotting, writing, and rewriting a successful script. Featuring a range of insider survival tips on creativity under pressure, time-effective writing, and rising to the challenge of international competitions, this is essential reading for newcomers and veterans alike.

Table of contents provided by Syndetics

• List of figures (p. viii)
• List of development strategies (p. x)
• Foreword (p. xii)
• Preface (p. xv)
• Part 1 Getting Ideas (p. 1)
• Chapter 1 Creativity and general problem solving (p. 3)
• Chapter 2 Triggering good ideas fast from screen models (p. 15)
• Chapter 3 Triggering good ideas fast from other models (p. 26)
• Chapter 4 What film are we in? (p. 31)
• Part 2 Conventional Narrative Structure (p. 43)
• Chapter 5 Overview of conventional narrative structure (p. 45)
• Chapter 6 Planning a conventional, three-act structure (p. 61)
• Chapter 7 Normality and disturbance (the set-up) (p. 68)
• Chapter 8 Action line or relationship line? (p. 72)
• Chapter 9 Protagonists and characters who seem like protagonists but are not (p. 78)
• Chapter 10 One protagonist, many antagonists (p. 86)
• Chapter 11 Characterisation (p. 91)
• Chapter 12 The plan and first-act turning point (p. 99)
• Chapter 13 The second act (p. 104)
• Chapter 14 The third act: Climax, resolution, symbolism and myth (p. 113)
• Chapter 15 Structural analysis of The Piano (p. 120)
• Part 3 Practical Plotting (p. 127)
• Chapter 16 The nature of the task (p. 129)
• Chapter 17 Close plotting: Beats, interweaving and condensing (p. 133)
• Chapter 18 Plotting: Tips, traps and rewriting (p. 144)
• Chapter 19 Genres with particular plotting problems (p. 155)
• Part 4 Parallel Narrative (p. 165)
• Chapter 20 An introduction to parallel narrative (p. 167)
• Chapter 21 Six categories of parallel narrative (p. 171)
• Chapter 22 Which structure suits my film? (p. 177)
• Section 1 Tandem narrative (p. 182)
• Chapter 23 Tandem narrative: An introduction (p. 182)
• Chapter 24 The macro in tandem narrative (p. 188)
• Chapter 25 Writing your tandem narrative film (p. 194)
• Chapter 26 City of Hope: Tandem narrative case study (p. 203)
• Section 2 Multiple protagonist narrative (p. 207)
• Chapter 27 Multiple protagonist narrative: An introduction (p. 207)
• Chapter 28 Multiple protagonists: Preliminary plotting (p. 218)
• Chapter 29 Multiple protagonists: Plotting the group action line (p. 222)
• Chapter 30 Multiple protagonists: Plotting relationship lines (p. 228)
• Chapter 31 Plotting issues in multiple protagonist quests, reunions and sieges (p. 235)
• Chapter 32 American Beauty: Multiple protagonist social siege (p. 242)
• Section 3 Double journeys narrative (p. 246)
• Chapter 33 Double journeys (p. 246)
• Section 4 Flashback narrative (p. 252)
• Chapter 34 Flashback: An introduction (p. 252)
• Chapter 35 Simple flashback forms (p. 254)
• Chapter 36 Complex or double narrative flashback: An introduction (p. 271)
• Chapter 37 Thwarted dream and case history flashback (p. 278)
• Chapter 38 Flashback: Protagonists, antagonists, and the enigmatic outsider (p. 287)
• Chapter 39 Autobiographical voice-over flashback (p. 301)
• Chapter 40 Planning a double narrative flashback film (p. 304)
• Chapter 41 Case studies of flashback films: Hybrids and oddities (p. 313)
• Section 5 Consecutive stories narrative (p. 328)
• Chapter 42 Consecutive stories narrative: An introduction (p. 328)
• Chapter 43 Consecutive stories: Stories walking into the picture (p. 334)
• Chapter 44 Consecutive stories: Different perspectives (p. 337)
• Chapter 45 Consecutive stories: Different consequences (p. 342)
• Chapter 46 Consecutive stories: Portmanteau films (p. 347)
• Chapter 47 Consecutive stories: Fixing journey stories with a portmanteau (Homer's Odyssey) (p. 370)
• Section 6 Fractured tandem narrative (p. 376)
• Chapter 48 Fractured tandem: An introduction (p. 376)
• Chapter 49 Pace, connection, meaning and closure in fractured tandem (p. 380)
• Chapter 50 Fractured tandem: The structure of 21 Grams (p. 386)
• Chapter 51 Four fractured tandem films (p. 397)
• Part 5 Lost in the Telling: Films with Structural Flaws (p. 409)
• Chapter 52 Conventional narrative films with structural flaws (p. 411)
• Chapter 53 Parallel narrative films with structural flaws (p. 419)
• Part 6 Getting It on the Page (p. 443)
• Chapter 54 Scene writing: Exposition, backstory and subtext (p. 445)
• Chapter 55 Dialogue (p. 449)
• Chapter 56 Treatment/outline writing and the script as an instruction manual (p. 467)
• Index (p. 476)