Here’s a useful resource even if you don’t write for stage or screen: Scriptshadow.
One of the most-referenced scriptwriting sites on the internet, this is a trove of sold-but-as-yet-unproduced scripts, calls for entry, industry news, and insightful essays on aspects of scriptwriting. It’s been two decades since I last wrote a script. But a couple of recent jaunts through Scriptshadow reminded me of two humbling things:
1. Scriptwriting is difficult, far trickier than novels or short stories.
2. Most scriptwriters’ lives are generally punctuated by frustration, invalidation, usurped efforts, low pay, and little recognition. Only someone truly sworn to this art would practice it diligently. I can honor that kind of obsession.
Why should a scriptwriter read Scriptshadow? Duh. Because it exists. Craft doesn’t come from magical late-night inspiration, but from hard work and exposure to great examples. And good bad examples. This is a repository of all that stuff, opened for you by someone who wanted to give back to the community.
Why should a novelist read Scriptshadow? Same reason a novelist should at least know the basics of story-boarding. All forms of writing have common skills. Cross-training will never harm your creativity, and may give it a kick in the pants. Who knows, dear unknown reader – you might actually be a scriptwriter, and never have known it!
Good artists don’t whine about limits. They work around, through, under, over, or in spite of them. Script, with a strict format more formulaic than the most cookie-cutter category romance novels, pushes good writers into using and transcending those limitations.
Plus, Scriptshadow is entertaining as hell.