Screenwriting Tricks for Authors (and Screenwriters!)

STEALING HOLLYWOOD: Story Structure Secrets for Writing...

by Alexandra Sokoloff

CreateSpace

Non-Fiction

August 7, 2015

ISBN-10: 1508511373

ISBN-13: 9781508511373

Available in: Trade Size

Screenwriting Tricks for Authors (and Screenwriters!)
by Alexandra Sokoloff

Are you finally committed to writing that novel or screenplay, but have no idea how to get started? Or are you a published author, but know you need some plotting help to move your books and career up to that next level?

You CAN write better books and scripts—by learning from the movies. Screenwriting is based on a simple (and powerful) structure that you already know from watching so many movies and television shows in your lifetime. And it’s a structure that your reader or audience unconsciously expects, and is crucial for you to deliver.

In this textbook of the internationally acclaimed SCREENWRITING TRICKS FOR AUTHORS workshop, award-winning author/screenwriter Alexandra Sokoloff will show you how to jump-start your plot and bring your characters and scenes vibrantly alive on the page by watching your favorite movies and learning from the storytelling tricks of great filmmakers:

° The High Concept Premise

° The Three-Act, Eight-Sequence Structure

° The Storyboard Grid

° The Index Card Method of Plotting

° The Setpiece Scene

° Techniques of film pacing and suspense, character arc and drive, visual storytelling, and building image systems.

Based on the internationally acclaimed Screenwriting Tricks for Authors workshops and blog, this new print edition incorporates all the basic information from the first Screenwriting Tricks for Authors workbook and doubles the material, including ten full story breakdowns.

The textbook-quality edition is 8 x 10 inches and lies open flat for easy highlighting and note-taking.

For information on books, workshops, and free Story Structure extras, go to www.ScreenwritingTricks.com

REVIEWS:

“Alex Sokoloff’s STEALING HOLLYWOOD is the owner’s manual that belongs in every writer’s toolkit. Alex dissects the elements of story-telling with clarity, wit and wisdom. Don’t thank me—buy the damn book!” —Mary Kay Andrews, New York Times bestselling author of Ladies’ Night and Summer Rental

“I’d already written fifteen novels by the time I met Alex and discovered her unique approach to structuring fiction. She changed my entire writing process for the better. I couldn’t live without my three-act storyboard! Alex is a gifted and generous teacher and author, and STEALING HOLLYWOOD is a must-have book for new and seasoned writers alike.” —International bestselling author Diane Chamberlain

“Sokoloff’s advice is spot-on, and her teaching style is direct and effective. A must-have book for authors and screenwriters.” —JA Konrath, bestselling author of A Newbie’s Guide To Publishing

“Whether you’re an old pro or an apprehensive beginner, Alex Sokoloff offers a sensible nuts-and-bolts approach that puts you in control of your material.” —Margaret Maron, Edgar®, Agatha, Anthony & Macavity Award-winning author of the Deborah Knott mysteries

“Sokoloff is a generous mentor with the gifted ability to address a storyteller’s practical concerns while encouraging artistic integrity and every author’s unique voice. Only three of my half dozen novels have been written with her unwitting guidance, but I can guarantee that with this book at my fingertips, all my future work—and my reading audience—will benefit from her advice. Recommended without reservation.” —Vicki Pettersson, bestselling author of the Sign of the Zodiac series

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Alexandra Sokoloff's Bio

I’m the Thriller Award-winning and Bram Stoker and Anthony Award-nominated author of the Amazon bestselling crime and supernatural thrillers The Harrowing,The Price, Book of Shadows, The Unseen, The Space Between, and the Thriller Award-nominated Huntress/FBI thriller series: Huntress Moon, Blood Moon, Cold Moon, Bitter Moon, and Hunger Moon. The New York Times Book Review has called me “a daughter of Mary Shelley” and my novels “some of the most original and freshly unnerving work in the genre.” I’m a California native and a graduate of U.C. Berkeley, where I majored in theater and minored in everything that Berkeley has a reputation for. After college I moved to Los Angeles, where I’ve made an interesting living doing novel adaptations and selling original thriller scripts to various Hollywood studios. In my stories I like to cross the possibility of the supernatural with very real life explanations for any strangeness going on, and base the action squarely in fact. The Unseen is based on real paranormal research conducted at the Duke University parapsychology lab, and Book of Shadows teams a Boston homicide detective and a practicing Salem witch in a race to solve what may be a Satanic killing. The Space Between, is an edgy supernatural YA about a troubled high school girl who is having dreams of a terrible massacre at her school, and becomes convinced that she can prevent the shooting if she can unravel the dream. I also have written paranormal romance (The Shifters,Keeper of the Shadows) and the non-fiction workbooks Screenwriting Tricks for Authors and Writing Love, based on my internationally acclaimed workshops and blog. I live in Los Angeles and in Scotland, with Scottish crime author Craig Robertson. When I’m not writing I dance: jazz, ballet, salsa, Lindy, swing — I do it all, every chance I get.