Complete Screenwriting Course

by Charles Harris

Designed to take you from the moment you first put your pen to paper to pitching and selling your completed screenplay, this is one of the most inspiring books on screenwriting you'll ever read.

Practical exercises will teach you the craft of writing for film and television, both mainstream and independent, the art of building your own plots, characters, dialogue and scenes. It gives you the skills you need to succeed and helps you critique your own work, meaning that at every step of the writing process you'll be producing the best scripts you can.

This book is filled with essential writing tools, including techniques for overcoming writer's block and how to find your unique voice. You will learn how to pitch and get your work optioned, how to work as part of a team and how to make the best use of social media - in all a comprehensive companion that you will keep coming back to as your career develops.

Genres: Nonfiction, Writing

288 pages, Paperback

First published October 17, 2014

About the author

Charles Harris is a bestselling, award-nominated author and award-winning writer-director.

His latest novel, the comedy crime Play Me! has won a place as a finalist for the Page Turner Awards 2025.

Harris likes to give his novels a political edge and to go undercover to research them. For Play Me! he worked with SAS veterans, journalists researching high-profile assassinations and charity workers dealing with international corruption. He goes to great lengths to get the right details, to the point of falling off a mountain in the Caribbean.

For The Breaking of Liam Glass, a gripping satirical tale of tabloid scoops and betrayal, he smuggled himself into tabloid newsrooms and local government offices. His debut novel, it was an Amazon bestseller and shortlisted for Wishing Shelf and Eyelands International awards.

For his second novel, the psychological thriller Room Fifteen, he worked with police and talked his way into a police cell. It also became an Amazon genre bestseller.

He has won international TV and film awards for his darkly satirical documentaries, dramatised documentaries and his debut feature movies, the black comedy Paradise Grove. He has had short stories nominated for awards and his non-fiction work includes the bestselling Teach Yourself: Complete Screenwriting Course (John Murray) and Jaws in Space (Creative Essentials). Both are recommended reading on MA screenwriting courses.

He has also trained extensively in hypnotherapy and NLP (Neuro-Linguistic Programming) which he uses to help writers, directors, actors and other artists, is a board member of the Society of Authors - and is a sixth Dan in Aikido.

He has a wife lives with him in North London and two sons who don't.

Reviews

[Annie Muynck · Rating 5 out of 5]

I met Charles at "Euroscript" London. I attended a lot of his Master Classes. I learned a lot about screenwriting from him and also from the other Euroscript teachers, I couldn't have written my screenplays without. I bought his "signed" book "Complete Screenwriting Course" at the London Screenwriters Festival a few years ago and haven't regretted since. The whole Euroscript team was also ready to give good advice during that occasion. It was good to read the book and find all the most important issues about screenwriting in one book! I highly recommend!

[M. Jones · Rating 5 out of 5]

As someone who has written books, I was interested in seeing the screenwriter's take on crafting a story; there are obvious parallels between the two media, and the mutual influence is also clear, with books more and more seeming to follow cinematic formats with camera-like 3rd person limited POV, for example, showing not telling, and short goal-directed chapters. This is far better than Jessica Brody's Save the Cat! Writes a Novel (which I'll review next), not least because it steps outside and beyond what Harris calls "The Hollywood Method" popularised by Blake Snyder. Not only does Harris offer a step-by-step guide to creating your story, he also has tons of excellent advice when it comes to writing that painful first draft AND the all-important bit when the work really starts: editing. From my experience so far (6 books, including a trilogy), every single thing Charles Harris said rang true; I'd either experienced it, or I could see how it would help next time. If you're looking for a mentor and a guide in the process of crafting a story from start to finish, this is the real deal.

[lucy 🦋 · Rating 4 out of 5]

A very helpful book for screenwriters, however much experience they have. Great for plot and character building but towards the end goes off into tips on how to get a script bought and made, when that's definitely not accessible to most people reading this book.

[Başar · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is the book every aspiring screenwriter should read. Unbelievably helpful. A great guide!

[Ryan Collins · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very informative.

Easy to read. The book covers all aspects of screenwriting and breaking into the business. I read this fairly quickly.

[Nicki Markus · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Complete Screenwriting Course is a comprehensive book that covers all aspects of writing for the screen from initial research to selling your script and finding an agent. The chapters present the information in a way that is easy to digest with plenty of examples and exercises to help along the way.

This is a great read for anyone interested in screenwriting and would also be of interest to fiction writers given it contains useful chapters on plotting and character development.

I received this book as a free e-book ARC via NetGalley.

[Eleanor · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is an excellent introduction to screenwriting. I read it through start to finish, though I think I will be referencing it plenty of times in the future and following the steps as I attempt my own screenplays.