I've taken NO classes. I've attended NO seminars. I've signed up for NO on-line courses. And after all my research, my first script was optioned within THREE MONTHS of completion, and now it's on its way to preproduction!
I barely had time to solicit agents!
These are the texts that answered nearly every question I've had. The discussions and interviews I've had with writers and producers only reinforced the principles taught by these books:
Syd Field: 
Screenplay and
A Screenwriter's Problem Solver
David Trottier: 
The Screenwriter's Bible
William Goldman: 
Adventures in the Screen Trade
Vicki King: 
How to Write a Movie in 21 Days
I recommend setting aside $20 every two weeks and purchasing one of these books!
With these books, you won't need to pay any high priced tuitions or seminar/workshop fees! All you'll need is a highlighter and a pen! It's all in these books! Any instructor will tell you that! Ask them if these books are worth it!!
If you click on any one of these books, I'll take you right to the place where I bought mine! ('Cept I actually WENT to the Barnes and Noble Bookstore... so it cost ME a little more!)
MY STORY!
Every success story in this industry is one that
should be tagged with a disclaimer: "results may
vary". But there is much to learn from every
success... AND every failure.
- ME!
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Until the summer of 1997, I had been a full time high school English teacher in Arizona. Among several other subjects, I taught literature and Shakespeare. I was always very animated in my classroom, and students appreciated it when I would preface my explanations of the assigned reading with "If I were to make a movie of this, I would...".
After a few years, my students suggested that I actually MAKE a movie of my own... and so I began by making a video yearbook.
An ASU professor hooked me up with the university's media department, and I locked myself in an ASU closet with a VideoToaster machine that was left behind when the video editing department shut down that year.
I was in that closet 14 hours a day for nearly a month! Don't ask my wife how she felt about that!! But I finally finished my project!
I was hooked! I set up a Media and Film course at the high school and, having purchased $5,000 worth of equipment on my credit card, I began teaching what I had learned.
I filmed and edited school functions, school promotionals, and one class even talked me into working with them for five weeks to film A Travis Travesty, a 20 minute movie inspired by Shakespeare's Hamlet.
In the summer of 1997, my wife Shari, was given a job opportunity that would pay more than I could make if I had been teaching for 15 years... and so we left Arizona for God's Country --Washington!
This was a perfect opportunity for me to begin a writing career!
In August of 1997, I began doing research. Since we lived on a tiny peninsula an hour from the town where my boys went to school, I stayed in town until they were dismissed. I spent a lot of time in local bookstores and libraries.
One day, while standing in line at the peninsula's only ATM machine, I noticed a car of one of the patrons had a window sticker that exhibited a particular movie studio.
The vehicle's owner explained that he worked for a film studio just across the border --in Canada. It was difficult to contain my enthusiasm, but I did.
He invited me to the set of the television show he worked on --STARGATE SG-1! He showed me around, and we watched a couple takes of an episode for OUTER LIMITS. That's where I met Lou Diamond Phillips!
Back at the offices, this gentleman hooked me up with a former writer for the popular '80's televison series "McGyver". And a few weeks later, this writer and I had some brewski's at a local pub. He answered a lot of questions, but mostly he reinforced what I had already found in my research. It was helpful to hear it come from a credited writer!
When I finished my script (having re-written it three times), I asked this writer to evaluate it for me. And after some changes, I began soliciting agencies all over California. Out of 30+ queries, I had several requests for a synopsis, and then a few follow-ups for my script... but nothing really panned out.
At about that time, my wife and I moved to the town where my children schooled. When summer began, I took a job working at a local video store --free movies, y'know?
.........
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