ADVANCED SCREENWRITING: Raising Your Script to the Academy Award Level by Seger, Linda (2003) Paperback

by Linda Seger

Excellent Book

Genres: Writing, Film

Paperback

First published September 1, 2003

About the author

Dr. Linda Seger has a Th.D. in Drama and Theology, and created her script consulting business based on her dissertation project about the elements needed to make a script work. She explored the integration of Drama and Spirituality during her five years in seminary. She holds three M.A. degrees: Drama from Northwestern University, Religion and the Arts from Pacific School of Religion, and Feminist Theology from Immaculate Heart College Center.
She has a broad religious background. She grew up Lutheran and did several years of spiritual seeking in her 20s. She became a Born-Again Christian and then joined the Quakers (Society of Friends) and is a member of The Colorado Springs Friends Meeting. Throughout the years, she has meditated at a Zen Buddhist center, attended New Age conferences, has done the spiritual exercises of Saint Ignacious, and has read and taken classes in the religions of the world.
Dr. Seger's thoughts about how spirituality influences her work:

“Many readers are surprised and even confused when they see I’m the most prolific writer in the area of screenwriting, an international screenwriting consultant and a screenwriting teacher. Yet, I also do theology/spiritual books. Some of this comes from having an M.A. In Drama, 2 M.A.s in theology and a ThD in Theology and Drama. They seem to be separate, but they are actually integrated.

Drama shines a light on the human condition. It explores the conflicts, struggles, doubts, uncertainties, and possibilities for transformation and redemption. Even secular drama deals with hope and goodness and the struggle for authenticity and love.

When I consult on scripts, I am trying to help the writer reach deeper into the truth about who we are as humans and what are our possibilities. When I write books on spirituality, I am doing the same thing – digging deeply into our experiences and struggles, and then shining the light of Scripture and theology on making some sense out of what we see and feel. I am trying to get at The Truth and to dig deep into our experiences. So, I never look for easy answers, and I don’t try to pigeonhole either our stories or our spirituality.”

Reviews

[Nick · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book is reminiscent of many "business success" texts -- it could be reduced to about 10 or 15 pages of decent material. Most of the remaining text contains a series of examples -- some illustrating Ms. Seger's points rather well and others feeling like they were included so that the book could make a word count.

The body of examples chosen is broad enough that you needn't have seen more than half of the pictures Seger mentions in order to get the full value of her book.

"Advanced" is a bit misleading, as even Seger herself points out that a lot of this material appeared -- perhaps in a more basic form -- in previous texts of hers, including "Making a Good Script Great," among others. At times the label "advanced" is completely lost; for example, the section on "subtext" in dialogue seems, at times, downright condescending to anyone who has any exposure to screenwriting theory.

If one skims this book, focusing primarily on its essential content -- and not on the illustrative examples -- it could be moderately useful, especially right before beginning a new project, the idea being that upon reading the book you have some of these ideas (the basic ones and otherwise) fresh in your head.

My favorite part of the book is early on when Ms. Seger talks about recent developments in unconventional structure. This section, above all others, gives this book its greatest value.

[Rafael Stadniki · Rating 3 out of 5]

Although there are some bright spots, mostly when Seger analyse narrative structure and types of scenes, it's clear that this book didn't age well as the authoress had intended. She claims it's main goal is to think the future of screenwriting, by using examples of the most famous scripts from the decades before, the 90's and 80's. However, it's remarkable how ALL of the foreing language film examples doesn't fit in her narrative theory. So, all of those screenplays are bad? For Linda Seger, it seems so. However, being a filmmaker outside of Hollywood, it's clear for me that some of the "rules" she says are typical from american storytelling, and of course it's possible to make terrific movies otherwise. As a fellow writer once said: "the problem of american script manuals is that they think movies as a train rushing from A to B, and every look at the window landscape is simple waste of time". That's the exactly feeling I had after finish reading it. Nevertheless  it's ironic that almost twenty years after this book being written, a film from South Korea has won both Academy Award from best screenplay and best picture. That movie, for sure, wouldn't fit in Seger's way of thinking. Thank God Bong Joon-ho didn' raise his script to the "Academy Award Level".

[Brie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Pretty good, but I still haven't won an academy award.

[Charles · Rating 4 out of 5]

A Good Read But...

The information here is worth the read. Goes deeper than other guides I have perused. And the writing has a good flow/cadence.

However, the typos, missing spaces, and inconsistent italics detracted from the enjoyment. These are simple errors and should have been caught in a final proofing. I know, I know, there are always typos. But this one has too many.

So, enjoy this for the information, but brace yourself for the repeated jolts out of the flow. You can't help but notice the typos, and for me, that breaks the immersion.

[MarkoPDX · Rating 4 out of 5]

I don't recall what led me to pick this book up at the library (probably after watching a movie that made me say, "Surely I can do better than that"), but it touched on things that I have not seen discussed in the other screenwriting books. I liked it enough to buy a copy to keep.

[Brian Misakian · Rating 4 out of 5]

I go to this bad boy when Making A Good Script Great and Syd Field aren't enough. Note: Syd Field is never enough. I usually skip that book altogether.