THE SOUL OF SCREENWRITING

Non-Fiction (Creative Writing) 478 pages

- September 2008

 

Keith Cunningham distils the wisdom of more than twenty years of his screenwriting and story development seminars. Starting from within the writer’s creative experience, he asks two crucial and often overlooked questions: How do we get to the core of our story? And how do we balance our concern for the finished product with our own creative process? Uniquely inspired by the work of the mythologist Jospeh Campbell and psychologist Jean Houston, Cunningham demonstrates that good storytelling requires much more than hitting the big ‘plot points’ with exciting action. He argues that it is only stories that have a voice that truly speak to the audience – and to gain that voice, the writer needs commitment, enthusiasm, and an urge to get to the core of the dramatic conflict without resorting to escapism. Much more than just another ‘screenwriting by numbers’ book, The Soul of Screenwriting is a big, bold and holistic approach to the subject that will resonate with anyone who has ever sat down in front of a blank page, burning with the ambition to write a great screenplay.