i love that last quote! these books sound great. just requested them from my library. thanks for the tip.

There are 4 volumes in the "Backstory" series and cumulatively, they offer an amazing coverage of screenwriters -- from the 30s up through the 90s. The books are out of print, but one of my students said they picked up some used ones online for dirt cheap.

Hey, did you get the "deep structure" handle courtesy of Noam Chomsky, John Truby or possibly some other source?

yep - the los angeles public library has all four - and i put a request in for each one. :)

as for deepstructure, noam chomsky by proxy. i discovered it via neal stephenson's 'snow crash'.

and thanks for add! i'm honored. i've reciprocated.

i'm enjoying your blog. btw i looked up your ucla online course. i'm considering taking it and was wondering exactly how that works. i did the blackboard tutorial. does the class meet in the evenings online or do you just assign tasks that we'd have to complete?

"...The ending. The beginning is a cinch"

This, coupled with Philip's thoughts about writers block, suggests he rarely started at the end and worked back to the beginning. One wonders how many hangovers and long country drives Philip might've missed had he done so!

Belzecue: I thought the same thing when I first read Dunne's quote. I've told this story often to my students, but in the WGA '88 strike, when we were picketing Fox, I met a veteran writer who told me (paraphrasing), "You gotta be able to answer four questions before you start writing script: what's the beginning of the story, what happens at the end of Act One, what happens at the end of Act Two, and what's the ending of the story. If you can't answer those questions, you haven't got dick." I agree - especially re the ending. Even if you get lost in the writing, if you have that ending in place, it can serve as a lighthouse to guide you through the darkness.

Deepstructure: The courses I teach through UCLA Extenstion are all online and use Blackboard. Due to my work schedule, I'm only able to do 1-week courses nowadays. They are not for credit and have no written assignments. That said, they have proved to be great learning opportunities. Typically, I post 6 lectures, one per day, and we have a 1-hour office hour / live chat session on the 7th day. The main thing is the back-and-forth on the Discussion Boards, where I'll post questions re the lecture material, students will respond for some excellent analysis and debate. Also students can post any / all questions, comments, differing opinions resulting in yet more lively conversation. I also post many 'background lectures' depending where the discussion goes.

I've had several emails about my upcoming teaching schedule. I'll post something on the blog in the next few days as I have an interesting announcement to make.

Let me just say that having taught over 20 courses online, I am constantly amazed at how 'deep' the experience is in those classes. The sense of community that evolves, the dialogue back and forth, with students from all around the world. Plus, students get the benefit of lectures that teachers write out and post -- no scratching down notes from a live lecture, it's all handed to you on a silver platter.

Distance classes / online learning is the future happening right now. Really worth checking out.

More later.

Belzecue: I visited your blogs. Impressive. Couldn't figure out how to contact you. If you don't mind, I've added your Screenwriting News blog to my Friends list.

"I've added your Screenwriting News blog to my Friends list"

Awww, you're just doing that because you post so darn often, you're always in the top three most recent articles, LOL.

Seriously, cheers for that, Scott. I notice you've linked to the RSS feed of the page itself. Sadly, the way the page is being built dynamically, it's not creating new posts for each entry. It's all done in a widgety way (voodoo magic). Hence, no RSS feed is being generated as yet.

I'm going to think some more about how I can rejig a feed for the page itself. In the meantime, you'll need to link direct to the page itself, if acceptable (http://screenwritingnews.aferg.com). I'm considering adding a yoktu.com-generated feed, but it's rather bare looking and I'm not sure how useful it would be. A better solution is needed.

Anyway, thanks again. I'm particularly enjoying the regular screenwriter quotes you're blogging. Throw in some more Hecht!!

Belzecue, beyond the most basic HTML and whatever I've managed to stumble on and figure out re the wacky world of blogging, I know next to nothing about computers, the Web, etc. My approach has been to focus on creating content as my idea is to make this site a resource for aspiring and working screenwriters. So any advice on the technical front is greatly appreciated.

Re Ben Hecht: I'll absolutely try to source interviews with him. Unfortunately, he's not included in "Backstory," volume 1, so it will require some digging.

You're most likely familiar with the famous telegraph Joseph Mankiewicz sent to Ben Hecht in 1926: "Will you accept three hundred per week to work for Paramount Pictures? All expenses paid. The three hundred is peanuts. Millions are to be grabbed out here and your only competition is idiots. Don't let this get around."

"Millions are to be grabbed out here and your only competition is idiots. Don't let this get around."

Indeed I do know it, and indeed the word got around, LOL.

http://rageagainstthepage.blogspot.com/2006/01/how-to-be-screenwriter-in-three-easy.html

Man, doesn't that sound like an awesome time to be a screenwriter... getting in at the ground floor of a new industry.

Here's my fav Hecht quote:

"A movie is never any better than the stupidest man connected with it."

Great Hecht quote. Here's another one: Hecht once said that in Hollywood "starlet is the name of any woman under thirty not actively employed in a brothel."

i just came across that hecht quote a few months ago when i read marc norman's what happens next. apparently it made quite a stir then also.

and scott, im not sure you want to take technical advice from a guy who can't even link in a comment.

haha, sorry belzecue - just havin' fun. ;)

Thanks for that post. I just went to read your review of Norman's book. Although tempted, I didn't buy it at the time, and based upon your reaction (and a few other reviews) I doubt I will.

I had an idea a few months back - wouldn't it be intriguing to write a book tracking the development of screenplays? Starting with the "scenarists" in silent movies, to the first talkies, the influence of journalists-turned-screenwriters, playwrights-turned screenwriters, the impact of television's growth on movie scripts, the screenplays of the 60s and 70s, the emergence of the 'spec script,' the "Pad O' Guys" (e.g., Shane Black, Ed Solomon), breaking the 4th wall, the shift away from directing lingo toward a more 'literary' style. I'm not sure anyone but me would be interested in the subject matter, however, I studied source and form criticism in grad school, so it'd be a natural combination of my interests.

What do you think? Anybody out there interested in a book like that?

that sounds like more what i thought a book about the history of screenwriting would be about, so of course it sounds interesting to me.