How to Write a Movie in 21 Days: The Inner Movie Method

by Viki King

In this classic bestselling screenwriting guide—now revised and updated—author and film consultant Viki King helps screenwriters go from blank page to completed manuscript through a series of clever and simple questions, ingenious writing exercises, and easy, effective new skills.

Viki King's Inner Movie Method is a specific step-by-step process designed to get the story in your heart onto the page. This method doesn’t just show how to craft a classic three-act story but also delves into how to clarify the idea you don't quite have yet, how to tell if your idea is really a movie, and how to stop getting ready and start. Once you know what to write, the Inner Movie Method will show you how to write it. This ultimate scriptwriting survival guide also addresses common issues such as: how to pay the rent while paying your dues, what to say to your spouse when you can't come to bed, and how to keep going when you think you can't.

How to Write a Movie in 21 Days, first published in 1987, has been translated in many languages around the world and has become an industry-standard guide for filmmakers both in Hollywood and internationally.

For accomplished screenwriters honing their craft, as well as those who have never before brought their ideas to paper, How to Write a Movie in 21 Days is an indispensable guide. And Viki King's upbeat, friendly style is like having a first-rate writing partner every step of the way.

Genres: Writing, Nonfiction, Film, Reference, Media Tie In, How To, Art

208 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1988

Reviews

[Quantum · Rating 5 out of 5]

Easily convert the pacing for a movie into the pacing for your genre novel. I'm using this right now for my next novel-length project.

[Greg · Rating 3 out of 5]

Note that the title of this book is not "How to Write a Movie in 21 Days That is Great and Will Win You an Oscar." Yes, you can write a movie in 21 days. Perhaps not a very good one, but you can. I know, as I've done it in ten days, following King's basic instructions but moving faster. And if you want to get your first screenplay on paper, this is the best account out there to get you started. (You should know that there is a massive industry out there embracing books, and classes, and screenplay contests, and seminars, and that's fine, but that industry is out to make money for itself, and perhaps find one or two original screenplays a decade.)

[Jayda · Rating 5 out of 5]

This actually is a really interesting book. I like how interesting it actually IS. When I started it, I expected it to be one of those boring "How-To" books (I've read plenty on writing novels) but it actually entertained me!

I'd recommend this to all of you who want to write a script, and to all of you who want to participate in Script Frenzy!

Hopefully I'll be able to write my script in 21 days :)

[Bob · Rating 4 out of 5]

Full confession. I did not make it through the 21 days. I hit page 60 and realized I had completely missed my target. It seemed pointless to continue writing 60 more pages when the foundation was collapsing as I worked.

King is a great source of wisdom and this screenplay primer provides a great exercise for beginners. There are several valuable pieces of advice here: the most important of which is from the opening chapters. To paraphrase King, reading to many screenplay manuals has the effect of giving us less confidence as to what the hell we are supposed to do when we sit down to write. Sort of counter intuitive but she has a point. This book works best for beginners or people that feel crippled by preconceptions. .

[Brian Misakian · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book isn't really the end-all screenwriting textbook, but it's still much better than most that I've read. What makes this one so great is that it gets to the point. Other screenwriting books will bore you with endless examples and hypotheticals. How To Write a Movie in 21 Days is an encouraging, fun, and helpful read for any screenwriter, whether they're a beginner or a pro.

[Darby Steeves · Rating 4 out of 5]

The references have not all stood the test of time. Those aside, i'm excited to start my next screenplay with this structure in mind.

[Sam Gurvinder · Rating 5 out of 5]

It's great and helpful Book for aspiring screen writers .

[Terri Lynn · Rating 2 out of 5]

Not bad but you will very likely not have any movie written in 21 days. Actually, there is some reading to be done and some planning before you even get to the 21 days and it seemed to be to be disjointed as you wrote about things without having the whole idea down pat. Imagine trying to write a book this way. Picture a book you like. Imagine that you are the one who is going to write it. You have this vague idea of what it will be about and who the hero or heroine is. Okay, start writing page 75. Don't bother to outline or rough draft the novel, just label a page as page 68, 75 or 10 and start writing it.

This might well work for some people and much of the book has clever creative ideas but frankly, I need to know what the story is, who the people are, and outline the situation and events at least roughly before being able to dash off to a page and write its contents.

This is good for ideas but don't expect to have a salable script in 3 weeks.

[Raymond Just · Rating 3 out of 5]

An interesting read and a clever method for anyone to write a script. This is a book for beginners, for people who want to say they've written a script. It's not about writing scripts commercially or professionally. It works best if it's something personal, and the method and lessons makes the most sense for scripts involving a hero's journey. It's light on technical advice, and its explanation of story structure is somewhat simplistic. But it nevertheless has the potential to be effective for someone wanting to get their story down on paper. It's also a bit touchy feely in places, so be forewarned. And it's not about how to become a working writer, as evidenced by the fact that the section on what to do with one's script is a lean two pages long. But it definitely has a place on the shelf, and it contains some effective tips and advice.

[Ben Ickler · Rating 4 out of 5]

One of the first books I read about writing, so I might be rating it higher out of nostalgia. I've used it several times while working on stories. It's an uncomplicated guidebook on writing the first draft of your screenplay, mostly in terms of structure and daily writing habits, but you can use it for books too.

[Thomas.harrop · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book contains a great deal of information about writing, pacing and formatting a movie script. It helps you break the task down into smaller steps that make the whole process more manageable. I am going to start using it in my video classes.

[Britney · Rating 4 out of 5]

More like 4.5

A little dated, but this is a fantastic resource for outlining/plotting. I converted quite a bit of the content to make more sense from a novel writing perspective, and it was a fairly seamless transition.

[Morgan Kail-Ackerman · Rating 3 out of 5]

Some helpful ideas but I think there are better screenwriting books out there.

[Laura · Rating 2 out of 5]

Someone gave me this book years ago and I finally got around to reading it. It is very dated, and the section in the back, concerning dealing with excuses, is sort of funny, but also gendered in a way that makes me frustrated.

I picked up this book because I was trying to mainstream my writing process so I can write 2 different projects at once. I may use some of the tips and processes from this book, but I’m unlikely to be able to write a draft I’d be willing to share with the world in 21 days. I cheated and broke it down into 21 assignments, so it took me longer. After going through the process this first time, I have tooled the system to be more like 24 assignments, and the result is a viable first draft.

The most useful advice I gleaned from this book was laying out about 10 notecard goal posts (I typically do more than this in my initial outlines) and writing the entire first pass in 7 days. It doesn’t give you time to panic or stifle your idea. That said, my revision process for the 2nd draft, even after the 14 other days, which accounts for 2 more passes, will need to be less linear than this book simplifies the process to be.

I don’t know that I recommend this book, but I’ve layered the useful bits into my existing process and plan to use this revised version for the first draft of another script I want drafted by the end of July.

[Matthew Elfenbein · Rating 4 out of 5]

Viki King's book provides the structure to a movie script that helps construct and organize the daunting writing task. Yet, like with "Save the Cat!" by Blake Snyder, these lessons do not have to land solely for a movie script. In fact, this is a good book on how to write anything and get through the internal and external troubles that might stop the process. [return][return]At times, this book might be a bit clunky in the writing, but it makes up for the insights (she calls them the "Inner Movie Axiom") that are general enough to speak to the character or the writer. Both of these figures make up the essence of who and what is being written about, thus making this process less scientific and more subjective. [return][return]This book is helpful to any writer of a script, novel, or dissertation (I wish I had this back then). There are great insights on the subject and demonstrating how they do something, which is what engaging writing should always be in dealing with the hero's journey and transformation. This can be a person, thing, or theory.[return][return]In the end, after all of the advice and contemplation, the key is, as King bookends with, "Write it the best way you can" (181).

[Jon · Rating 1 out of 5]

This book was read really as something of an after thought after ploughing my way through Robert McKee's immense "STORY" - and my view of it suffers enormously as a result.

Sure, it's possible to write a movie in 21 days but the corresponding quality of that movie is going to be reflected in the time that is spent on it. The author seems to assume that writers can just magic plot lines, characters, situations, conflicts, tension out of thin air in order to keep to a timetable that really has more to do with a snappy book title than anything solid, realistic and practical.

Okay, okay - maybe I'm being a bit harsh here. This book does provide a god overview of the kinds of things a writer need to consider in preparing to write their screenplay, I will give it credit there. It covers the basic template for Western screenwriting and in that it could be useful to first time writers or students.

But a more serious screenplay writer would be wise to take this simply as that - an overview of a basic screenplay template - before moving onto some other, more sophisticated books on screen writing.

[Tyrone Atkins · Rating 4 out of 5]

I love films. I've watched thousands (literally) and I've even appeared in a small handful too but I'd love to actually write one. It has been a fascination of mine for nearly two decades and lemme tell ya.... it's hard. It's like, really hard. So hard in fact that in all this time, and having read numerous books about the craft of screenwriting (mostly good too), I've yet to complete a single draft. Hell, I've yet to get to a second act. This is all entirely down to me of course. The latest of a long line of books on the subject that I've read is Viki King's How To Write a Movie in 21 Days (1988), a non-complicated step-by-step breakdown of the process that utilises self-affirmation and positivity to encourage beginners. King covers all the raw basics and ingredients and her writing style is fuzzy and personable but will this be the book that unlocks my courage and finally sees my Bigfoot/heist movie bound out of my subconscious and on to your nearest Cineworld? We shall see. Worth a read but if you're REALLY interested in delving into that world, go for Syd Field's 'Screenplay' or 'Save the Cat' by Blake Snyder - or anything by William Goldman.

[Nina · Rating 2 out of 5]

I followed the book step by step, it's impossible to write a good movie in 21 days. As a screenwriter you want to write a good movie, not just a movie... And it says write a movie in 21 days but after you have everything thought. For instance, day one is: write 10 pages.

[Leigh · Rating 5 out of 5]

If you're high anxiety or work with people who are high anxiety, this book's approach is down to earth and, dare I say it, Zen.

[Benjamin Hill · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very good and motivational. However, I disagreed with some of the outlining suggested. Especially the pace.

[Reza · Rating 5 out of 5]

ترجمه ی عباس اکبری رو خوندم .
کتاب قشنگ و جالبیه. نکته های خیلی مهمی رو لا به لای دستور هاش بیان میکنه.
میتونه برای همه کتاب مفیدی باشه

[Sergey Plusnin · Rating 4 out of 5]

Просто, но неплохо. Когда я осмелюсь написать сценарий, то почитаю что-нибудь посерьёзнее, но эту книгу буду использовать как шпаргалку.

[Gopisai · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good

It is very nice and Gud information for beginners .Need to spend time to learn and understand concept .You will get gud idea

[Doon · Rating 4 out of 5]

It’s a cheery pep talk of a book, with actionable advice about how to structure your screenplay and set the stakes. Similar to, though less detailed than Save The Cat!

[Dan Doherty · Rating 2 out of 5]

All books written about how to write movies are by people who aren't talented enough to write movies.

[D.A. Smith · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is the book that changed my life, and helped me start my author's career!

[Jeannie Locke · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good reference book.

[Gaia Milizia · Rating 4 out of 5]

Well, I disagree on somethings the book says, but this is actually one of my favourite screenwriting books. Of course there's no "quick fix" to screenwriting, but the author makes a compelling case.

[Isabella · Rating 4 out of 5]

very comforting, but the question is will i be able to write a movie in 21 days? abangan

[Andressa Da Silva · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book…is not as helpful as it thinks it is