The Screenwriter’s Roadmap

The screenwriter's GPS for writing a great screenplay!

Avoid the wrong turns, dead ends, gaping p(l)otholes, and other obstacles commonly encountered when writing a screenplay. The Screenwriter's Roadmap: 21 Ways to Jumpstart Your Story keeps you on route and helps you reach your final destination: a completed screenplay that's full of surprises, emotionally resonant, and ready for the marketplace.

Neil Landau, an established Hollywood screenwriter and script doctor, provides 21 questions for you to ask yourself as you write, to help you nail down your screenplay's story structure, deepen its character arcs, bolster stakes, heighten suspense, and diagnose and repair its potential weaknesses. These 21 vital questions have been field-tested and utilized in the creation of some of Hollywood's biggest blockbusters and critically acclaimed films. Each chapter is augmented by end of chapter "homework" assignments, examples from recent blockbusters and timeless classic films, as well as interviews with some of Hollywood's most successful screenwriters including Scott Z. Burns (Contagion), Tony Gilroy (The Bourne Legacy), Laeta Kalogridis (Shutter Island), David Koepp (Spider Man), Jeff Nathanson (Catch Me If You Can), Eric Roth (Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close), David S. Goyer (The Dark Knight Rises), , Billy Ray (The Hunger Games), Melissa Rosenberg (the Twilight trilogy), Sheldon Turner (Up in the Air), and many others.

teaches in the MFA in Screenwriting and Producing Programs at both UCLA School of Film & Television and USC School of Cinematic Arts, and is a faculty advisor in the MFA in Writing Program at Goddard College. He also wrote the cult hit "Don't Tell Mom the Babysitter's Dead", among many other credits.

GuidePost 1: Clarify the Central Conflict of Your Premise

GuidePost 2: Think of Setting and Time Period as Another Character

GuidePost 3: Create an Iconic Protagonist with a Core Contradiction

GuidePost 4: Give Your Protagonist Something to Win and Something to Lose

GuidePost 5: Determine Your Protagonist's Most Significant Weakness and how they'll overcome it

GuidePost 6: Drafting the Architectural Foundation

GuidePost 7: Hook Your Audience into the Plight of Your Protagonist by Page 10

GuidePost 8: Inject a Potent Antagonistic Force to Obstruct the Goals of Your Protagonist

GuidePost 9: Plunge Your Protagonist into Crisis at the End of Act One (no later than page 25)

GuidePost 10: Fuelling and Consistently Stoking the Dramatic Fire

GuidePost 11: Infuse Your Story with a Central Mystery

GuidePost 12: The Center Can Hold: Ratcheting up the Stakes at the Midpoint of Act 2

GuidePost 13: Thicken the Plot with a Pivotal Character

GuidePost 14: Compel your Protagonist into Epiphany in Act 3

GuidePost 15: Situate Your Protagonist at a Crossroads at the End of Act 2

GuidePost 16: Set the Clock Ticking

GuidePost 17: Heighten the Climax

Guidepost 18: Pay-off the Setups

GuidePost 19: Crafting the Inevitable Conclusion

GuidePost 20: Illuminate the Central Thematic Question

GuidePost 21: Rewrites: Reconnecting to the Emotional Core of Your Screenplay