The Bookshelf: Syd Fields's "The Screenwriter's Workshop"
Most people gush over Syd Field's book "Screenplay" but personally, I found the screenwriters workshop more helpful. To me, the toughest part of writing is actually getting an idea out of my head and onto the paper. This book helps teach structure and also gives you a step-by-step path to move you from concept to actual finished screenplay. He often talks about the paradigm of a script and gives you a handy diagram. When writing the script for a project during my senior year, I showed my teacher the paradigm diagram of my film. He looked at it in sheer amazement and even asked if he could keep it. He walked away staring at it like it was the translation of the Dead Sea Scrolls.
No book can ever teach you how to tell a great story but this book definitely helps in terms of how to put your story together and how to move it from imagination to reality.
