Product Description

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #71362 in Books
• Published on: 2008-03-01
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 173 pages

Features

• ISBN13: 9781932907391
• Condition: USED - VERY GOOD
• Notes:
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Customer Reviews

A Personal Script Doctor in Paperback
Paul Chitlik, the author of "Rewrite," has many years' experience teaching MFA workshops in screenwriting. His tone is amiably authoritative, guiding with the attention of an experienced script doctor. Here are samples of the "To Do" items, chapter-by-chapter.

1. Clarifying Story and Structure for Impact. "To Do: Briefly outline your story in terms of seven points" (p 11): Ordinary Life; Inciting Incident; End of Act One; Midpoint or Turning Point; The Low Point; The Final Challenge; The Return to (the Now-Changed-Forever) Normal Life. Next "To Do" is to write a beatsheet or list of the scenes in your screenplay. The book's appendix presents an excellent example of a 67-item beatsheet with subheadings corresponding to the seven points.

2. The Powerful Protagonist. "Write your premise now. Do not tell the story, only the idea of the truth you want to prove." Does your protagonist help prove your premise? If not, adjust his profile. Ten more "To Do" items include the protagonist's apparent goal, what the goal changes to at the midpoint, and the personality flaw.

3. The Worthy Antagonist. "Write one line saying what your antagonist wants" (p 43).

4. Ensuring Dynamic Scenes. "Go through your beatsheet and examine each scene for conflict. Write what, exactly, is the conflict of each scene under your description of the scene. If there is no conflict, there is no scene. Sometimes you'll need to group several beats to make a whole scene, so not every beat will have conflict" (p 47).

5. Making Descriptions Leap Off the Page. "Go through the descriptive paragraphs in your screenplay and see if you can take out all the adverbs and as many adjectives and nouns as possible. Shorten your sentences. Shorten your paragraphs" (p 61). "To Do. Find a scene that is heavy in dialogue and try to express it completely in action and description" (p 62).

6. Life Support for Your Protagonist. "Go through your story and identify the supporting characters who are most important. Beef up their screen presence by giving them a quirk of some sort. Make them stand out. Have the quirk relate to their personality or function regarding your protagonist or your antagonist" (p 67).

7. Paring It Down. "Choose a ten-page excerpt from your script that you think is pretty tight already. Now cut a page from it. Use any tricks you can think of, but get it down to nine pages" (p 72). Chitlik presents an example from his own screenwriting: an 11-page excerpt pared down to 9 pages.

8. Where Am I? The "To Do" item asks you to complete the suggested Script Status Report on your rewrite.

9. The Right Look. The "To Do" items include standard formatting, correcting grammatical errors, and culling out camera directions.

10. Finishing: The "To Do" item is to go back and rewrite. How many rewrites? "A professional writer might revise a script 30 times.... In fact, a script isn't done until the final cut is made, and it goes into wide release. Even then some writers would like to do more" (p 111).

An eminent script doctor in paperback, Chitlik's REWRITE merits five shining stars.
-- C J Singh

The Best Book on Rewriting
Paul Chitlik is one of the better instructors at UCLA and for those lucky enough to have taken his classes, you will realize the book is just like having Paul teach you.

It's written in a personal way, just like he teaches (I am one of the lucky ones to have been taught by him). While the book is written with screenplays in mind, it is also a great way to rewrite any story (play, novel, short story...).

There are tons of books on how to write the first draft (and maybe Paul will write one one day), but screenplays are rewritten many times and it is easy to get lost or overwhelmed by the sheer amount of energy it takes to rewrite. Paul helps you break it down into manageable chunks and in the process, allows for a better and deeper rewrite than you might be able to do on your own.

I tend to give books away after I read them... I am keeping this one in my library.

Excellet book on rewriting your screenplay
Years ago, when I was cheap and could not afford to go to college to take any writing courses, I thought I was clever to watch a course on television for FREE! The PBS show was about writing and it was set in a sit-com environment of a publishing house with characters that interacted. It was boring and I did not learn much. But what I did learn was a certain phrase: "All writing is rewriting." I have used that phrase so often I fear it will end up on my grave stone.

Knowing that "All writing is rewriting" is my mantra, I'm always surprised at how much my first drafts of scripts absolutely suck. I know full well that it's a first draft, I know in my heart of hearts that it will be flawed, I know beyond a shadow of a doubt that it's going to need a lot of work but I always assume I've hit a home run out of the ball park but when I actually read it, I realize it's a dribbler down the first base line. Yeah, I make it to first base and it counts as a single - but only because the pitcher overran the ball and in the process made it go foul...only by a generous scorer it goes as a hit and not an error.

Paul Chitlik's wonderful book is an enormous help to any and all writers out there. It's a very simple book, simply told, and all it really does is just remind you: Did you note what your hero wants? Have you ratcheted up the conflict between the protagonist and the antagonist? Do your descriptions need help? Are they too long? Too short? What about...??? Step-by-step (see title) he goes through the reminding process.

Using straight-forward text and many examples, he shows you how to avoid the traps writers fall into. Explaining why they are there and giving you ways around them.

I recently finished another screenplay. I've sent it to a number of friends to get feedback. I have yet to dive back in. I know the script is going to take a lot of work to get to the next level (a solid double down the right-field line). Reading Mr. Chitlik's book has got the juices flowing again in my own mind and I have recently been peppering my co-writer with thoughts: "Well, we can fix this with this... And we need to make the Antagonist more evil - but not in a one-dimensional sort of way..."

If there is any issue I have with this book, it is that I wish there were MORE examples. More: "See this 100 word paragraph? Here it is in 30 words." Or, possibly, hints on how to work around things. For instance in a script I wrote I really needed a big speech at the end. Instead of having the hero do the speech and then move on to the next task, I used the speech as a voice-over while showing him move on to the next task. Two things accomplished, 5 pages cut. Hints and tips like that.

"All writing is rewriting." Paul Chitlik does an amazing job of dissecting the hardest job facing any writer: the dreaded rewrite. Step-by-step, word-by-word, he is like a writing coach looking over your shoulder. Excellent book.