Why are most screenwriting books so bad?

Over the last ten or so years, I've spent a lot of time trying to learn movie writing. I've spent countless hours reading and re-reading books that are supposed to give you insight on the basics of storytelling and how to become a better screenwriter.

After all, since writing screenplays is fairly difficult, I thought that it wouldn't hurt to get these books and read them. I thought that there was a good chance that reading these books would help me and would make it easier to write a screenplay om my own.

Unfortunately, having now read almost all of the popular 'how-to' books that are out there, it has to be said that almost all of them are horrible. Almost all of these books are awful and are written by authors who don't know much about movie writing.

In order to show why most of the screenwriting books are so useless, let's look at Robert McKee's 'Story'. This is a screenwriting book that supposedly teaches you 'Award-Winning' methods about the craft and is one of the best 'how-to' guides out there.

So when it comes to this book, the biggest problem with 'Story' is that its advice isn't simple to understand at all. Instead of the book giving you practical advice that you could use, the author is much more interested in confusing the reader as much as possible.

For example, when it comes to those fundamental aspects of storytelling like story beats and story structure, there's very little useful material in the book. I just couldn't get a clear picture of what was going on, no matter how many times I read it.

In hindsight, the reason that the book is so confusing is that before it starts to talk about crucial stuff like the premise or the film's protagonist, we're already one third into the book. This is not good at all and in most cases will turn the reader off.

In reality, the story always starts with the premise of the film and what your main character(s) is going to be like. This is the most important part of the story, yet the author doesn't bring it up before we've reached page one hundred in the book.

Still, the most confusing thing about 'Story' has to do with its diagrams that are supposed to illustrate story structure. These illustrations (see below) that look like electrical circuit diagrams, are confusing and even contain 'false' information.

For example, even though McKee keeps repeating throughout the book how important it is that your scenes alternate between positive and negative (emotionally speaking), as a writer I have never paid any attention to this supposed 'fact'.

On the contrary, I'm pretty sure that paying attention to these ups and downs is redundant and will only make your scripts worse. I just don't see why anyone should worry about this stuff that seems to have 'voodoo science' written all over it.

That same way, I would also be cautious about (again the pic above) overanalysing the characters' desires or their conflicts. I don't see why one should get too obsessed with these different levels of conflicts, because storytelling isn't really that complicated.

After all, even though you obviously need to have characters that are interesting, them having  direction, energy and purpose (a goal) is what counts the most. Writing movies is not about creating characters that are too complicated and too confused.

In that sense, when I think about books like Robert McKee's 'Story', it's clear that reading them is likely going to make you feel confused about the craft. These are not books for those who want to learn the fundamentals of storytelling and story structure.

After all, paying too much attention to books like McKee's (& John Truby's etc.) will only make you less confident. Worrying about stuff like those diagrams will only make you postpone your own projects and make you think that you don't have it in you as a writer.

In the end, I can only be grateful that in my case - after first reading the bad books - I found stuff that was actually helpful and easy to understand. Solid books like Blake Snyder's 'Save The Cat' series gave me hope and helped me to write my own screenplay.

After all, unlike those other books, 'Save The Cat' didn't try to make the process any harder than it is. Instead of confusing the reader, it gave me a simple 'story formula' that felt natural and wasn't too restrictive in its approach to story structure.

In that sense, if you want to become a screenwriter, you should read those good books instead of the bad ones. You should read the good ones, because they are the ones that can help you and that can give you the chance to understand what storytelling really is about.

You shouldn't overthink things as a writer.

When it comes to writing, it's not exactly a secret that it's not easy to come up with quality stuff. Writing stuff that makes sense and has value is something that takes a lot of effort and is something that should never be taken for granted.

After all, in order to be able to write quality scripts, you have to work hard and use your precious brain well. You can't slack with your projects and phone things in, no matter how good or capable you might be as a screenwriter.

At the same time, just because writing quality stuff is hard work and is difficult, it shouldn't be something that is too difficult for you. You shouldn't find yourself in situations where you worry about the process too much or you keep overthinking yourself to death.

For example, when it comes to my book writing project (adaptation from a movie script), I was in a lot of trouble because I kept overthinking things all the time. I couldn't see things clearly and I kept freaking out about what I was supposed to do.

The biggest reason for my problems was basically that I had no previous experience in writing a book. I didn't know enough about writing a children's book, even though I knew a lot about writing for television and movies. 

In practice, overthinking stuff lead to me constantly overanalysing and micromanaging things. I worried about things like paragraphs, transitions and character dialogue so much, that at some point I couldn't see the forest for the trees anymore.  

Me worrying and overthinking become so serious that I started to feel that I wouldn't get the project finished. I thought that there was no way that I would get the book completed and that my story wasn't suitable for the adaptation.

Thankfully, at some point I managed to take a break from writing and went back to learning more about the craft. I went back and read books like Enid Blyton's 'Five Series' in hopes that I would get some insights on how to write my book.

Fortunately, it didn't take long before I noticed that reading these children's books helped me immensely. I noticed that I had been panicking in most cases for no reason at all and that I had actually been doing the right things all along.

After all, even though I had worried about everything, I noticed that I could get away with a lot of things. Things like my scene transitions weren't actually that bad and my dialogue for the characters was pretty solid too.

In that sense, when you think about overthinking, it's clear that the process has a lot to do with  experience (or the lack of it). It's about feeling insecure of yourself and not having confidence in how things are supposed to be done.

After all, if you don't know enough about the basics of writing novels, it's no surprise that you're going to feel uncomfortable about the craft. You're going to start panicking and overthinking everything, no matter how talented you might be.

In the end, I can only be grateful that in my case I managed to take a break from writing and went back to learn more about the craft. I can only be grateful that I noticed that I was micromanaging everything and that I was starting to feel awful about myself.

After all, even though I had a lot of experience as a writer, the fact that I hadn't written books or even read that many of them made my project so vulnerable. My lack of experience as novel writer wasn't a good thing at all.

In that sense, if you ever decide to write a book, you really should study the basics first as well as possible. You should study the basics and make sure that you feel comfortable about your genre before you start your writing.

After all, the more you know about the craft, the easier it becomes to get the project done. The more you know about how the basics and the fundamentals work, the easier it becomes to complete a project that has value and that makes sense.

I watched some random television shows again.

When it comes to my television watching habits, I haven't lately been watching that many tv shows. Even though I have tried to follow my favourite reality shows (The Amazing Race & Survivor), I haven't been watching anything else on a regular basis.

That of course doesn't mean that I haven't had my tv open when I have had free time during the evenings. After all, I tend to channel surf almost every day, in case there happens to be something interesting on that could be worth my time.

In any case, below are three different shows that I managed to watch while I was flipping channels last week. I watched these shows and gave them a chance, even though I more or less knew that I would not enjoy all of them.

So the first show that I watched was an episode of the 'New MacGyver' series. I managed to watch most of episode S2x20, 'Skyscraper - Power', that aired Wednesday night when I  felt tired and was just about go to sleep.

The problem with this particular episode was that it had none of the qualities of the original 'MacGyver' series from the 80s. There wasn't really anything that would make you care about the characters or what happens to them.

After all, the original series was not just a great action show that kept you entertained. It was also a genuinely intelligent series that dealt with all kinds of social and environmental issues that are important and that we should be aware of.

When it comes to this new series, it just doesn't have any of those qualities at all. The episode in which Mac and Jack are trying to save a kid from a skyscraper after the kid gets kidnapped, was pretty bad and bland.

Especially when it came to the episode's pop culture references (Die Hard), I have no idea what the writers were thinking. It was really frustrating to keep hearing dialogue from the Bruce Willis film over and over again.

The second show that I managed to watch is AMC's long running zombie series 'The Walking Dead'. I saw its episode S8E06, 'The King Widow and Rick', when I was watching Fox channel at 2.30 a.m. in the morning last Sunday.

When it comes to this zombie series, I haven't exactly been a regular viewer, even though I have nothing against the show either. I have tried to give the series a chance if I haven't had anything else to do during the weekends.

After all, there's something genuinely fascinating about human beings trying to survive in a post apocalyptic world. The circumstances - in which the society has fallen apart and there's very little hope left - is pretty fascinating in my opinion.

At the same time, when it comes to this particular episode, S8E06 was, as sad as it is, super repetitive and had nothing going for it. It was clear that the writers had no story and that they were just trying to create as much filler as possible.

Especially when it came to the wounded character (Ezekiel), who kept falling down again and again and who told others that he should be left behind again and again, that was not entertainment. Clearly this was an episode that was difficult to finish.

My last example is the sitcom 'Superior Donuts' that aired on CBS from 2017 to 2018 for two seasons. I managed to watch the pilot episode for the comedy series last Saturday, when I kept flipping channels and tried to find something that would entertain me.

When it comes to the series about a donut shop and its employees, I was somewhat positively surprised by it. The series has a simple, down to earth premise, which makes it possible for its characters and storylines to be relatable and likable.

The writing on the show, surprisingly enough, was also solid for a multi-cam (laugh track) comedy series. The pacing in the pilot episode was pretty good and the jokes came naturally of the situations - which I didn't really expect to happen.

Still, the best thing about the show had to do with its acting. Especially when it comes to the comedy veteran Judd Hirsch, it was simply incredible to watch a guy in his eighties (!) have as much as energy as he has here.

In that sense, if you happen to be on a channel that plays this show, you should watch it. You should watch it, because even though 'Superior Donuts' is not a great show, it's still a series that manages to get solid laughs from its premise and its likable characters.

The importance of learning from your mistakes.

When it comes to one being a writer, it's not exactly a secret that writing is a process that isn't easy to master. It's not a craft that can be mastered easily, even though it's possible to become better at it if you're willing to practice hard enough.

After all, no matter how talented you are, you will always make a lot of mistakes as a writer. No matter how good or experienced you might be, it's pretty much guaranteed that you will always make mistakes in the process.

So the reason that I'm writing about this is that I have been making a lot of these 'mistakes' in my latest writing project. Ever since I started adapting my animated screenplay into a novel, I have been struggling with all kinds of things.

Very likely the biggest problem that I have had with the book adaptation has to do with the story's pacing. It has been a really big challenge to make the story work, so that the novel could actually read like a book instead of it reading like a film script.

By that I mean that when it comes to writing books, the process is certainly different compared to writing television shows or movies. Especially when it comes to exposition in scenes and transitions, there are a lot of differences between these two art forms.

After all, writing books, unlike writing movies or television scripts, is not all about being as simplistic as possible. Writing books - or simply even reading them - requires so much more attention to detail compared to television shows or movies.

Not surprisingly, when it comes to my book, I have learned the hard way that writing dialogue or simply describing events like they are in the film script isn't enough. It takes more to make the scenes and the characters in the story to feel real and believable.

Naturally, this part of the task hasn't been as easy as I had thought at first. It has been super frustrating when I haven't been able to get the pacing and the transitions right, even though I have tried to pay attention to these aspects of the process a lot.

In reality, no matter how much I have tried, some of the problems in the adaptation have been painfully difficult to fix. It hasn't been easy to write inner dialogue, manage timelines and create composite characters so that the story could have a better flow.

Still, just because I have been struggling and making these mistakes, that doesn't meant that this project has been a total letdown for me. Just because it has felt horrible to not get things right, that's not all there is to this process.

After all, whenever I have faced things that haven't gone my way, I have tried to remind myself that just because I keep making mistakes, I can still learn from them. As long as I pay attention to where I went wrong, I can fix these mistakes later.

In that sense, even though I've had my bad days during this project, this has still been a great learning experience for me. This has been a great project, even though there are days when nothing seems to work and you really have to push yourself.

After all, as long as I keep learning and keep fixing these mistakes, eventually I'll get the project done. I'll get the project done and I'll get a chance to work on something new that would challenge me and that could make me a better writer.

Review: 'Ready Player One'.

Yesterday me and my friend managed to find time to watch Steven Spielberg's movie 'Ready Player One'. We managed to watch the sci-fi film after checking that it had gotten solid reviews from both the critics and the general audience. 

After all, since 73% of the movie critics and 78% of the viewers (on Rottentomatoes.com) had given this film a fresh rating, that was good enough for us. There was a high enough chance that the movie would be worth watching and worth our time. 

In any case, having now seen 'Ready Player One', I have to say that the film managed to be somewhat better than I had expected it to be. It exceeded my expectations, which weren't honestly that high for me in the beginning.

So when it comes to the film, 'Ready Player One' is a science fiction movie that is about virtual reality. It's about people escaping reality after their living conditions on earth have gotten considerably worse over the last couple of decades.

In the film, as our protagonist, we have a young guy called Wade (Tye Sheridan), who spends most of his time in virtual reality. By using his special glasses, he's able to enter this another world where there are almost no limits on who you can be and what you can do.

When it comes to the plot of the movie, the catalyst of the film happens when the developer of the virtual reality (Mark Rylance) passes away. In his will, he's giving his company to the person who solves the puzzles that are hidden inside his virtual 'Oasis'.

Not surprisingly, this incident and revelation launches a massive hunt for his incredible inheritance. Individuals and corporations with their massive resources all over the country start searching for clues that could give them the keys to the ownership of the company.

So when it comes to things that I liked about this film, one of the best things about 'Ready Player One' is that it looks really good. There's no question that a lot of effort went into making sure that the movie would look as good as possible.

By that I mean that from start to finish, everything in the film looks amazing visually. The real world and the virtual reality world 'Oasis' both look so mesmerising and wonderful that it's hard to take your eyes off the movie screen.

This wonderful look of the movie becomes especially obvious during the film's numerous action scenes. There are so many crazy action scenes that you just can't help but to wonder how much time it took to make everything work.

At the same time, even though there are a lot of good things that can be said about 'Ready Player One', that doesn't mean that everything in the movie works. Especially when it comes to the film's screenplay, the story leaves a lot to be desired.

At least in my opinion, one of the biggest problems with the story is that it's too episodic. The film's plot device - where the players have to find three different keys in order to inherit the company - in my view, feels rather forced and unnatural.

When it comes to those many 'celebrated' popular culture references in the film, I wasn't particularly impressed by them either. Even though it was cool to see some of those popular creatures in the virtual reality, it started to reek of 'fanboy' service rather quickly.

It also has to be said that the movie suffers from not having a clear message. It doesn't take a stand against the dangers of virtual reality, even though the whole movie is about the excesses of escaping reality and the dangers of the system.

After all, when the end result of the film is that the protagonist - after inheriting the company - decides to only limit the use of his 'Oasis' for others, that did not sit well with me. That was just a massive cop out that severely diluted the film's message.

Still, in the end, just because the movie had a lot of these problems in its story, that doesn't mean that I wasn't able to enjoy watching it. I'm not saying that you shouldn't watch it or that the film's story wouldn't keep you entertained.

After all, even though there were quite a few issues with the film's screenplay, that doesn't mean that these problems were too serious. Clearly the positive aspects were able to outweigh the negative aspects, when you put all things together.

In that sense, even though 'Ready Player One' could have been a better movie, it was still a watchable one. It was a watchable movie and kept me entertained, even though its screenplay could have been better and more organic in certain places.

Review: 'Molly's Game'.

Earlier this week me and my friend managed to find time to watch a movie called 'Molly's Game'. We watched this biographical film about Molly Bloom, an ex-athlete, who ran underground high stakes poker games for celebrities and businessmen in the early 2000's. 

The reason that we decided to watch this film - that is written and directed by Aaron Sorkin - is that we couldn't find any other movie that looked interesting. This was the only one that had gotten reviews that were good enough and that had a solid premise.

In any case, having now seen 'Molly's Game', it has to be said that I have mostly positive things to say about it. Even though there are certain problems with the film that shouldn't be overlooked, these problems in my opinion don't hurt it too much.

So when it comes to the good aspects of the movie, there's no doubt that the gambling scenes in it are entertaining. The movie is at its best when Molly - played wonderfully by Jessica Chastain - organizes and runs these underground high stakes events.

By that I mean that when her unlikely new career path - from a waitress to a gambling hostess starts to emerge (after giving up on her sports career due to a serious injury), that's when the story really starts to pick up speed.

In these enthralling scenes, we have A-list movie stars, famous athletes and businessmen (names changed for the sake of privacy) gambling and taking big risks. The movie shows these celebrated human beings in less than flattering light - to say the least.

During this phase of the movie, it was really fascinating to try to figure out who these characters were in real life. I couldn't help but to feel satisfaction when I was able to pinpoint who the characters' real life counterparts were (Tobey Maguire, Jamie Gold etc.).

In these parts, the movie works not only because of the gambling stuff, but also because the main protagonist starts to get in trouble. Molly gets in legal trouble because of her endeavours and also because the Russian mafia starts to go after her. 

The movie also works in these scenes, because in these scenes it knows what it's about. The story doesn't humanize Molly too much or make her - as a businesswoman - seem like she's a good person or that we should empathize with her too much.

That's why it's unfortunate that once we get to those scenes where we're supposed to feel for the character (excluding her getting beaten up) the story feels a bit forced. The scenes don't fit in with the rest of the movie and feel somewhat out of place.

Especially when it comes to the ice-rink scene where she - out of nowhere - runs into her father and has a touchy-feely talk with him, the scene doesn't make enough sense. I just couldn't find it to be believable or consistent with the rest of the movie.

In that sense, when I think about the movie as a whole, it's clear that 'Molly's Game' - even though a fairly good movie - is not a perfect film. It's clear that there are certain moments in the film where the story and the characters don't work that well together.

After all, even though some of these emotional scenes were perhaps necessary for the story to work, they don't fit in as well as they should. The movie's main protagonist isn't as likable and relatable as the writer probably thought she was.

In that sense, if you're thinking about giving 'Molly's Game' a chance as a movie, there's nothing wrong with you if you don't end up liking it that much. You might not like it, because certain moments in the film aren't that plausible storywise.

After all, even though most of the things in the movie are superb and even riveting, especially the scenes where Molly gets humanized aren't that great. They go against the film's ruthless nature and seem pretty inauthentic and misplaced.

At the same time, in case you do end up liking the movie, like me, there's nothing wrong with that either. There's nothing wrong with thinking that the problems in the film weren't that important and that they didn't prevent one from enjoying it.

After all, at least in my case, I found the movie - despite its flaws to be well made. Despite its flaws, I found that 'Molly's Game' as a whole kept me entertained and the good things in it clearly managed to outweigh the bad things in the film.

Updates on my book writing project.

A couple of months ago I wrote about my writing project, in which I would adapt my movie screenplay into a book. I wrote about how I would do the writing myself and that I wouldn't give the project for anyone else to do.

After all, since I wrote the original screenplay, there was no reason why I wouldn't be able to write the book version too. It was clear that I should try to write it myself - even though I didn't have any previous experience in writing novels.

So when it comes to how things have progressed lately, it can be said  that I have managed to get things done here. Even though I haven't finished the book yet, I've been busy with it and should be able to finish it in the next couple of months or so.

The biggest reason that I'm relatively confident that I'll get the job done is because I managed to write the rough draft already. I wrote a draft (in Finnish), which is a lot like the original film screenplay version that I wrote last year.

By that I mean that all the characters and all the events that are in the movie version are also in the novel version. I didn't have to cut any of the storylines or the plot points that were in the original version of the screenplay.

What this basically means is that in order to be able to write a solid book, I 'more or less' only have to follow the road map (the draft) and make sure that I keep the reader involved in the story. That's all that it takes to write a solid book - at least in theory.

Still, just because I can rely on a story that is well written and that makes sense, that doesn't mean that I have been able to make everything work right way. I'm not saying that I haven't had any setbacks during the adaptation process.

On the contrary, the minute I started the second phase of the project - making the draft look like an actual book - it became apparent that I would face obstacles here. There were obvious challenges that I hadn't thought about before.

For example, in the book version, I needed to create a narrative (third person) that would mimic the original version's friendly tone. I would have to make sure that the characters were genuinely likable,  because otherwise the story just wouldn't be worth following.

The other really big challenge in the book version has had to do with the pacing of the story. It has been a lot more difficult to give the story a solid pace, so that the scenes could have a relaxed feel and that the pacing wouldn't feel rushed.

Especially considering that there are so many transitions - characters moving from one place to another - time lapses etc. - it hasn't been easy to figure things out. It has been a lot more challenging to give the story a solid flow than I had expected.

Still, when I think about this project as a whole, just because I have had these challenges, that doesn't mean that I'm screwed. I'm not thinking that I'm not good enough and that I should give someone else the chance to finish the book.

After all, when it comes to projects like these, I tend to be really persistent and won't give up easily. Instead of giving up, I'm willing to try almost every possible solution in order to make sure that the story works and feels natural.

In that sense, even though I still have things to do here, I'll keep going. I'll keep going and will make sure that no matter what happens, I won't give up just because I might sometimes have bad days or just because I don't always get things done.

After all, as long as I'll keep writing on a consistent basis, eventually I'll be able to finish the book. I'll be able to finish the book and will have the chance to do something else that I might find to be interesting and that might be worth my time.