Lew Hunter here! I've been a professional writer for almost thirty years, writing episodic television, television movies, and features. I've taught writing just about everywhere you can find people who want to tell a story, including Africa, China, Croatia, and South America.

There are a lot of good books. If you can afford the time and money, I say 'buy, and for God's sake, read them all!' I know most of you can't, so these are the books I recommend. Nearly all of the titles (and more) on my "Lew Hunter's Naked Screenwriting" handout you receive when you come to my classes are here. (A few on my handout list are out of print.)

Since no physical bookstore has them all, for your convenience, I have them here, with links to Amazon.com. Nearly all of them are at below list price, and most of them ship within 24 hours, worldwide.

PLEASE, I implore you, patronize your local independent new or used bookstore. You might even find some of these titles as used texts at your college bookstore. You can try Bookfinder.com or Half.com which are good sources for used and out-of-print titles.

Write On! Lew

As an executive at Disney, I was working with Ray Bradbury. (We were trying to bring his Martian Chronicles to television. It took ten years, but we did it! VHS.)

Since I wasn't a writer myself, I felt a little sheepish, giving him notes. Imagine, Lew Hunter giving notes to Ray Bradbury!

One day I was talking to him in the cafeteria and I summoned up my courage and asked Ray if he thought I could become a writer. He thought I knew something about writing, and he recommended these two books. (I've added Ray's own book on creativity as well.) You won't find a lot of nuts and bolts, but they'll help you think like a writer.

On Becoming a Writer Dorothea Brande	The Wisdom of Insecurity Alan Watts	Zen and the Art of Writing, Expanded edition Ray Bradbury

I've been listening to a lot of students who think my approach is formulaic. Forgive me for bragging, but in 1998, 9 out of the top 10 box office winners were written by my 434 graduates. It seems the ticket buyers disagree with the Doubting Thomases and Thomasinas. The rules of storytelling haven't changed since Aristotle.

Since the first storytellers enchanted listeners around the fire, people like stories with a beginning, middle, and end. There are common elements to every good story. Ignore them at your peril!

Aristotle sets down the foundations of good storytelling. Joseph Campbell tells you what makes a hero. Lajos Egri explains story and character logic.

Aristotle's Poetics	The Hero With A Thousand Faces Joseph Campbell	The Art of Dramatic Writing Lajos Egri

You understand storytelling, and now you're ready to learn the nuts and bolts. You've - ahem - already read my humble tome, Lew Hunter's Screenwriting 434, and you're looking for more.

You'll enjoy Adventures In The Screen Trade, William Goldman's anecdotal account of his career, which also includes his script for Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid. I think my friend and colleague William Missouri Downs has written the best and most widely dimensional book on screenwriting today -- it's even better than my own!

Andy Horton's written a terrific book about the character-centered screenplay. (Hmmmm.... maybe I should have put his with Joseph Campbell...) And I have nothing but the highest respect for my friend and office mate, Richard Walter.
You can't go wrong with him!

Richard Walter's Screenwriting: The Art, Craft, and Business of Film and TV Writing	Screenplay: Writing The Picture William "Missouri" Downs and Robin Russin	Writing The Character-Centered Screenplay Andrew Horton

I confess I don't know a lot about script-formatting and story generating software. Until November 1999, I never owned or used a computer! (Now my lovely wife Pamela has to tear me away from the Internet!) All the scripts I've sold were written on my trusty manual typewriter, which I'm KEEPING. I give you the margin settings in my book and they're in every good general screenwriting text.

Although I'd rather you spend your money on movie tickets and video rentals, if you must have special formatting software, Final Draft and Movie Magic Screenwriter are the more common choices amongst students.

One of the things I tell my students is comedy has to flow naturally from the characters and situation. No one knows characters better than Andy Horton. That's why I recommend his book.

When I was just getting started, I wrote one-liners and jokes for some of the big names at the time. Sol Saks has been around since God was a child, writing for everyone.

Laughing Out Loud Andrew Horton	Funny Business Sol Saks

If you don't live in the greater Los Angeles area, it's probably difficult for you to meet and talk to professional screenwriters, unless you attend an expensive seminar in some exotic far-away locale. Here's the next best thing, collected interviews.

Cameron Crowe's excellent Conversations With Wilder, an extended interview with Billy Wilder is a must-have. Mr. Wilder had such a varied pallette, directing (and writing some) "Some Like It Hot," "Sunset Boulevard," "Fortune Cookie," "Stalag 17," and many, many others. (He's also in my forthcoming "Lew Hunter's Naked Screenwriting, 24 Academy Award-winning Writers and Directors Talk about Writing.")

My colleague Bill Froug (he hired me to teach at UCLA) has several terrific collections of interviews. Here they are, along with a partial list of interviewees.

Zen and the Art of Screenwriting (Insights and Interviews) William Froug Includes: Frank Darabont  The Green Mile, Shawshank Redemption Callie Khouri  Thelma & Louise David Peoples  Unforgiven Janet Peoples  12 Monkeys Bo Goldman  One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest Larry Gelbart  Oh, God! Stewart Kaminski  Hidden Fears Laurence Dworet  Outbreak!

The Screenwriter Looks at the Screenwriter William Froug Nunnally Johnson  The Grapes of Wrath, The Two Faces of Eve IAL Diamond  Some Like It Hot, The Apartment Buck Henry  The Graduate, Catch -22 Stirling Silliphant  In the Heat of the Night William Bowers  The Gunfighter, My Man Godfrey Ring Lardner, Jr.  M*A*S*H William Brown Newman  The Man With the Golden Arm, The Great Escape Edward Anhalt  The Boston Strangler, Jeremiah Johnson Fay Kanin  Rhapsody, Teacher's Pet Lewis John Carlino  Seconds, The Great Santini David Giler  Myra Breckinridge, Aliens

The New Screenwriter Looks at the New Screenwriter William Froug Dan O'Bannon  Alien Anna Hamilton Phelan  Gorillas in the Mist Jack Epps Jr. & Jim Cash  Dick Tracy Diane Frolov  Alien Nation, Northern Exposure (partial list, more complete list to come)

backstory 1: Writers of the Golden Age Patrick McGilligan (Editor) Charles Bennett  Foreign Correspondent, The Man Who Knew Too Much W.R. Burnett  High Sierra, The Great Escape Niven Busch  The Postman Always Rings Twice, Duel in the Sun James M. Cain  Double Indemnity, Interlude Lenore Coffee  Young at Heart, The End of the Affair Phillip Dunne  Forever Amber, The Robe, The Agony and the Ecstacy Julius J. Epstein  Casablanca, The Last Time I Saw Paris, Pete 'n' Tillie John Lee Mahin  Captains Courageous, Showboat, Not time for Sergeants Richard Malbaum  Dr. No, From Russia With Love, Goldfinger, Diamonds are Forever, A View to a Kill Casey Robinson  The Corn is Green, Passage to Marseille, Allan Scott  Top Hat, Imitation of Life Donald Ogden Stewart  The Philadelphia Story

backstory 3: Writers of the Sixties Patrick McGilligan (Editor) Jay Presson Allen Prime of Miss Jane Brodie, Prince of the City George Axelrod The Seven Year Itch, The Manchurian Candidate Walter Bernstein Fail-Safe, The Molly McGuires Horton Foote To Kill A Mockingbird, Tender Mercies Wallon Green The Wild Bunch, Eraser Charles B. Griffith Little Shop of Horrors, Eat My Dust John Michael Hayes To Catch a Thief, The Man Who Knew Too Much, Butterfield Eight Ring Lardner Jr. A Star Is Born, Forever Amber, M*A*S*H Richard Matheson The Omega Man, The House of Usher Wendell Mayes The Spirit of St. Louis, Death Wish Irving Ravetch and Harriet Frank, Jr. Long, Hot, Summer, Hud, Norma Rae Arnold Schulman A Hole in the Head, Goodbye Columbus, Tucker, A Man and His Dream Stirling Silliphant In the Heat of the Night, Charly, Shaft Terry Southern Dr. Strangelove, Easy Rider, The Magic Christian

Besides a good dictionary, here are a couple of other books you should have. (Why a dictionary? Spell-checking is not  enough. Readers have a pile of spec scripts to read and they're