Quotes from Syd Field

Many writers—and I read more than five hundred scripts a year—do not realize that a screenplay is a selling document. When they're writing a screenplay, they're not writing a movie. They're writing a script, material that's going to be read, not seen. And it's the reading experience that will determine whether the movie gets made or not.

A screenplay is a story told with pictures, in dialogue and description, and placed within the context of dramatic structure.

To tell a story, you have to set up your characters, introduce the dramatic premise (what the story is about) and the dramatic situation (the circumstances surrounding the action), create obstacles for your characters to confront and overcome, then resolve the story.

A Plot Point is defined as any incident, episode, or event that hooks into the action and spins it around in another direction—

When you can articulate your subject in a few sentences, in terms of action and character, you're ready to begin expanding the elements of structure and story. It may take several pages of free-association writing about your story before you can begin to grasp the essentials and reduce a complex story line to a simple sentence or two. Don't worry about it. Just keep doing it, and you will be able to articulate your story idea clearly and concisely.

they should write their brains out. If they get a deal, they should write the assignment, then take time off to write something on spec, then write an assignment, then write on spec. You have a lot more control over a spec script that becomes a hot script. It can put you on the A list faster than waiting four years to get something developed.

Art, he proclaimed, is the process of actually sitting down and doing it. Not talking about doing it, not thinking or fantasizing about doing it, just doing it. Only after the work has been completed and exposed to public view will it be considered a work of "art" or not. If you think you're "an artist" just waiting for that one moment of inspiration to sit down and write, you'll be waiting forever.

People call it high-concept but it's really having an idea which you can tell in a couple of sentences, so the head of the studio can call the marketing guy and pitch it, and the marketing guy can say, Yeah, I can sell that.

and the ones they like are the ones where they can say, yes, that's a movie. They can see it. Even if parts of it need work; maybe some of the jokes don't work, maybe some of the characters are a little cliché, maybe some of the stuff is a little repetitive. But if you can see the movie, there's a chance it might get made, even if they have

What if you read a book you like, and want to write a screenplay based on that book? To find out if the rights to that book are available, call the publisher of the hard-bound edition. Ask for the motion picture and theatrical rights division. They will tell you if the rights are available; if they are, they will refer you to the author's agent.

Story determines structure; structure doesn't determine story.

Writing is the ability to ask yourself questions and wait for the answers.

Writing should be an adventure, shrouded in mystery and uncertainty, blessed with amazing grace. In theory, of course