By Forris Day Jr.
“Getting It Write – An Insiders Guide To A Screenwriting Career” is not a book that will teach you how to write a great screenplay. It will not teach you structure, format or character development. What it will do is lay down the tracks and show you the path that you must follow once you have created your screenplay. There are established guidelines and steps that need to be followed if you hope to sell a screenplay and make a living as a writer in film and TV. They are laid out in this book.
Author Lee Zahavi Jessup has been around filmmaking all her life so she has a very good grasp on what needs to be done. The book is brutally honest and frank. She will not fill your head full of illusions of grandeur. She promises no quick way to “make it” in Hollywood. Only good old fashioned hard work can make you successful and she takes you step by step through the process. You will learn what industry executives are looking for in a script. You will learn how to promote your script and yourself by networking and pitching. Should you enter it in a contest? When is the best time of year to send your script to Hollywood? How should you react to “markups” on your script and other writers advice about it? The answers are in the book.
“Getting It Write” is a pretty quick read but loaded with no nonsense information. There is no fluff, just tons of good usable information. Jessup writes in an authoritative tone that says this girl knows what she is talking about. She has included lots of website links to sites that can help you jumpstart your writing career. You will learn about the legal part of scriptwriting such as registering your script, getting release forms, sale agreements and all that other legal boring stuff that most of us creative types try to imagine doesn’t exist. It’s important and is addressed in the book.
The book is well written and serves as a guide to help people who want to become a screenwriter as a career. If you are just writing “that one screenplay” you’ve always had in your head then this may not be the book for you. If you want to be a working writer in Hollywood or even your hometown then this is the book for you. Whether you want to write feature length films or 30 min TV scripts you will learn all the ins and outs of the business in one easy to digest book. There is a lot of information in here but it is all straight to the point and easy to understand. Read it, understand it and follow Jessup’s advice and you will be loaded with the ammo you need to make it in the movies.
The bottom line is if you don’t want to put in the hard work that is required to make it in the business no book will help you. If you are ready and willing to buckle up and get moving on your screenwriting career then read Lee Zahavi Jessup’s book “Getting It Write – An Insiders Guide To A Screenwriting Career”. You will save yourself years of anquish by knowing the right way to approach a screenwriting career.
Rating: 7.5/10 – Get your screenwriting career on the right track
Purchase “Getting It Write – An Insiders Guide To A Screenwriting Career”