Screenwriting Books

So I finished a first, roughish draft of my new script last night, written somewhat oddly because I've been bringing chunks into my screenwriting group and rewriting as I went along.

It needs a rewrite, but hopefully not an enormous one. It also happily only came in at 91 pages, so I have room to play, though I'm more than willing to keep it in double-digits.

Anyhow, I'm going to toss it aside for at least 3 weeks, and let my brain forget all about it, while I ponder the high-concept comedy I think I'm going to tackle next.

One thing I like to do from time to time is read a screenwriting book. Like many people, I started out with Syd Field, and he's nice if you're a beginner, but I got tired of him pretty quickly.

About 12 years ago I actually attended one of what's-his-name's weekend seminars. Wow, I actually can't remember his name any more, but you know the guy. 30 hours, tears apart Casablanca, eventually wrote a book covering the same basic ideas.

It was a riveting 30 hours, and I took a ton of notes, and then never looked at them again.

In the last 10 years I've occasionally picked up a screenwriting book and read through it, though now I like to use them to get my brain churning on a particular project. Usually when I'm heading into a rewrite, just to get me to consider things from different angles.

Now I'm at an interesting place, because it's two projects. One a rewrite in which I'm about to tighten down the screws, but have room to build on an addition or change the decor I have to.

The comedy is something I made a couple of false starts at before, but I think I finally have a take on, yet I still have to work out the storyline.

I have no doubt that I could do both pretty well at this point -- but at the same time sometimes it's nice to have another perspective to feed into one's mental chopper.

So I guess the question is, what's your go-to book? If I walk into a bookstore looking to grab something to goose my brain, what should it be?

Go.