About
the Book:
How to Write a Movie in 21 Days is a classic, bestselling
screenwriting guide that helps screenwriters go from blank page to
completed script through a series of clever and simple questions,
ingenious writing exercises, and easy, effective new skills.
If you are an actor hoping to gain ground, learning the formula of
a screen story is vital. What is an actor if not an assistant
storyteller? Viki King will gently help you into the world of
movie structure. Follow her steps. Learn them. It's the classic
structure most "A" picture movies follow. Movies are not
about what's currently happening, but what's happening next.
Mastering story will shed light on why less is often more. It will
also make you a master of text analysis. And as a side benefit, it
will help you avoid bad material once you've arrived.
Viki King has developed the Inner Movie Method,
which is a specific step-by-step process designed to get the story in
your heart onto the page. This method doesn't just show how to craft
a classic three-act story but also delves into how to clarify the
idea you don't quite have yet, how to tell if your idea is really a
movie, and how to stop getting ready and start. It answers such
questions as:
• How to clarify the idea you don't quite have yet
• How to tell if your idea is really a movie
• How to move from what you want to say saying it
• How to stop getting ready and start
Once you know what to write, her Inner Movie Method will
show you how to write it. This ultimate scriptwriting survival guide
also addresses common issues such as:
• How to pay the rent while paying your dues
• What to say to your spouse when you can't come to bed
• How to keep going when you think you can't
For accomplished screenwriters honing their craft, as well as
those who never before brought their ideas to paper, How to Write
a Movie in 21 Days is an indispensable guide. And Viki King
has an upbeat, friendly style that is like having a first-rate
writing partner every step of the way.
What people say:
"Channeling
both the head and the heart is the difficult challenge all writers
must face – Viki King
knows the secrets of this challenge, and shares them generously in
this delightful – and so practical – guide for screenwriters."
— Maureen
Foster,
screenwriter
"Viki King
manages to demystify the art and science of screenwriting. Speaking
from the heart and later, spotlighting concepts from the head, Viki
King presents tactics
that place writing in the unstressed context of nonthreatening time
management. The idea of eight, nine and ten minute sessions is
wonderfully simple, promisingly adaptive, and joyfully do-able."
— Maisha Hazzard,
Ohio University
"Viki
King
is the film Oracle. Don't do a movie without her."
— Stephen
Simon,
Producer involved in over 20 films
"Here's the real secret, this
book isn't about writing – well it is, but really, it's about
living. Living with grace and blossoming in whatever pot you're
planted." — Ellen Sandler,
producer and screenwriter
About the Author:
Viki King is an American writer, script consultant, and
lecturer. Since 1968 she has written for such prime-time TV shows as
Three's Company and Hart to Hart. As a script consultant she has wide
clientele of screenwriters. She lectures at the University of
California at Los Angeles on her Inner Movie Method and
conducts seminars nationally, from New York University and the
University of California at Santa Barbara, from Mensa to Lompoc
Federal Penitentiary, to the Writer's Guild of America.