THE ICE PICK

The Complete Book of Scriptwriting, by J. Michael Straczynski. 1st pbk. ed. Cincinnati, Writer’s Digest Books, 2002, c1996. 424 p. $19.99. Includes: Glossary of Visual Terminology for Television and Film; Sample Release Form, Evaluation Agreement, and Client-Agent Contract; Complete script for Babylon 5's "The Coming of Shadows" episode; and index. ISBN: 1-58297-158-7.

Did you know that "cut tos" are old-fashioned? Do you know the difference between a "close shot" and a "close-up"? How and why to indicate a "fade in" or a "match cut" or the use of a hand-held camera? Do you know how to write a sample premise for an animation script or market a stage play? Or how to structure a radiodrama or tell radio listeners that a character has arrived home using sound alone? And did you know that you should not only enclose a release form with your script, but also write "Release Form Enclosed" on the envelope to prevent having your script returned unopened?

This book can help with all of those things. It can also help you avoid being ripped off by unscrupulous agents, producers, and workshops.

Completely revised from the classic 1981 edition, the book includes an entire section on animation, as well as updated information throughout.

Chapters cover television, motion pictures, animation, radio, stage plays, and the business end of scriptwriting. Brief histories of each field are given, plus the "art and craft" of writing for each one. Writing with both clarity and humor, Straczynski explains how to improve your writing while mastering the art of creating a script, and then how to market it.

This is hands-on, practical advice from a master in the field--and someone who knows science fiction, besides.

As Straczynski says, this book was written for those who say, "All the other books can tell me how to write a script, but nobody tells me what to do when I’m finished with it."

He explains in detail, for example, how to present a pitch for a TV episode at a meeting, down to "don’t try to read your pitches from a page; tell the story, the way you would around a campfire. What I usually do is allocate one page per pitch; write in big bold legible letters a few words for each important beat. . . . This way I . . . easily know where I am without having to fumble . . . flipping pages trying to find [my] place."

The book is full of wonderful advice and tips like that.

But perhaps you are just getting started and only dream of a chance to pitch your work. You will find here the instructions you need to format your script professionally, as well as the steps you need to take after you have written and polished it.

If you missed the 1996 hardcover edition and are writing scripts, or want to, or you are dreaming of the day someone asks you to do a screenplay based on your novel or short story and want to be prepared, you should get this book.

"Because," as Straczynski says, "sometimes, every once in a while, the dream really does come true."

{Published in SF and Fantasy Workshop Newsletter, Mar. 2004. Reprinted in Write Connections, Oct. 2004.}