Abstract
The world is littered with an ever-increasing pile of screenwriting textbooks, script development workshops, script gurus and script doctors all promising certainty in a volatile and uncertain industry. Like the search for El Dorado, many have searched for the winning script formula, but like El Dorado no one has ever found it. How-to books inevitably become the grail for aspiring screenwriters, yet those who dutifully follow the rules all too often produce formulaic screenplays that fail to ignite the imagination. The screenplay rules and structural paradigms may well provide useful tools during the script development process, but the gold always lies elsewhere. I suggest a more exploratory approach is needed, and in order to discuss this I wish to reflect on my own practice.
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© 2014 Margot Nash
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Nash, M. (2014). Developing the Screenplay: Stepping into the Unknown. In: Batty, C. (eds) Screenwriters and Screenwriting. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137338938_7
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137338938_7
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, London
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