Screenwriting Updated: New (and Conventional) Ways of Writing for the Screen

Cynthia Sharp

Aronson’s Bridge Between Learning and Doing—A Must-Have for Screenwriting Curriculums

by Cynthia Sharp

 

Abstract

 

Creative writing classrooms are a bridge between film and literary studies and personal creativity. It’s a curriculum that requires unique resources geared to academics, practicality and hands-on tools. An increasingly popular field in universities and colleges, creative writing aims to provide experimental safe space metered with clear steps and junctions. This paper examines the merits of adding Linda Aronson’s Screenwriting Updated: New (and Conventional) Ways of Writing for the Screen to graduate and senior level screenwriting university courses as a follow up to Blake Snyder’s Save the Cat and Robert McKee’s Story: Style, Structure, Substance, and the Principles of Screenwriting.

 

Article

 

In 2001, master teacher and mentor Linda Aronson, who specializes in non-linear film structure, added a comprehensive new book from Silman-James, Screenwriting Updated: New (and Conventional) Ways of Writing for the Screen, to the landscape of screenwriting guides, which she followed up with The 21st Century Screenplay in 2011. From handling scripts with multiple main characters to identifying and addressing flaws in all aspects of the writing process, Screenwriting Updated: New (and Conventional) Ways of Writing for the Screen offers a practical guide for serious writers. It’s filled with ideas to get people going, easy-to-read graphic organizers and bullet lists for academic instructors, and logical explanations to help writers work through the messiness between what’s not working on the page and the character motivation, dramatic turns and balance final products should have. Aronson does not just provide a golden image to aspire to, she dives into where writers take wrong turns with step-by-step methodology to fix them.

Screenwriting Updated: New (and Conventional) Ways of Writing for the Screen leaps off from the type of manual that only explains why strong scripts work. Rather than just proffering formulas and ratios that make solid scenes fly, Aronson also caters to both established and aspiring writers with engaging exercises that build on her analysis, while adapting easily into graduate and undergraduate creative writing curriculums. While Robert McKee’s 1997 Story: Style, Structure, Substance, and the Principles of Screenwriting offers an in-depth account of screenwriting structure and is a definite must-read for any screenwriter, flash fiction author or novelist, Aronson’s text goes even further, giving readers editing sessions in addition to models and formulas to emulate. A lot of guides tell readers what makes great sculpture, then hand them a lump of clay to shape alone; they praise the film and fiction equivalents of Michelangelo’s David without ever sharing that Michelangelo had to erase his first attempt at painting the Sistine Chapel ceiling because he had gotten the proportions wrong, that great art is developed with the maturity to start in small gradients and not be afraid to learn from trial and error. Aronson is with students and readers through the process of ironing out mistakes without people losing the whole vision. Her work is a thorough blue pencil editing session teaching readers how to edit their own and other people’s fiction. She identifies typical script problems, such as types of flawed dialogue, highlighting areas in Going on Holiday and The Break Up where the writing is cliché, melodramatic or obvious (Aronson, 265-274) and provides step-by-step suggestions to fix it that people can emulate in their editing.

Aronson knows that her readers want to write scripts and novels, not just study film, so she presents her material to lead readers into their stories in concrete, specific steps, a bridge between structural information and adapting it to one’s own current projects. She respects that her readers are writers and offers doable homework in a quick format for anyone wanting to master either the overall arc of a Hollywood screenplay, or specific details within. The table of contents in Screenwriting Updated: New (and Conventional) Ways of Writing for the Screen is so detailed that it’s possible to use the book for exactly what one needs without having to read all of it, or to let Aronson take you through her entire course of material. Aronson’s Development Strategies not only help writers to brainstorm, but also to tighten work at each step along the way, going back to ensure that each new addition serves earlier structure. In “Developing Strategy 17: Establishing the first act turning point through the final climax,” for example, she instructs readers to ask themselves, “What problem is my climax resolving? What would be a good first act turning point to set up that problem? Is my first act turning point a physical surprise that causes an obstacle?” (80) Her method guides storytellers to seamlessly build on previous work by rereading and editing as an ongoing habit so that problems can be identified and fixed before they become entrenched in a script or novel. There are tailored questions for a variety of different scenarios, all easy-to-use with a boost to productivity and depth. She gets people into an idea, one interval at a time, then gets us to see how new scenes fit with previous ones, then to adjust both.

McKee’s Story: Style, Structure, Substance, and the Principles of Screenwriting encourages students to work in classical, linear structures, an important foundation for all dramatists. Aronson attests to this importance, then builds on it by unraveling the intricacy and paths of teleplays and screenplays in the twenty-first century, taking screenwriting to where it’s going by exploring multi-hero structures and non-linear timelines in addition to the traditional models they expand on. Her book is filled with microcosmic charts that exemplify the mathematics of balance in complex scripts. She offers new paradigms for the fast-moving nature of twenty-first century television, pointing out the structure and patterns in new forms and specific character questions to lead the way into writing for specific genres, such as, “What would be in character?” and “How can I make Character A do something which will make Character B react in character?” (86)

Screenwriting Updated: New (and Conventional) Ways of Writing for the Screen is not only a handy writing guide for anyone dabbling in character or plot, it’s also an excellent teaching resource with practical exercises that work well for individuals, as well as for large and small groups. The Development Strategies sprinkled through the first third of the text give workshop attendees concrete steps they can take for a project they are already working on, or an exercise to begin right there in class with manageable gradients between tasks. We’re not just told how our final product should look, we’re given a clear map of instructions to get there, complete with what to do if we take a wrong turn. In any workshop, it’s important for participants to have practical ways to engage with the material, and Aronson makes this simple. Her exercises are mapped out in stages, even though the concepts she addresses are elaborate, such as the diagrams for the “Content of the triggering crisis” in the “Alternative narrative structures: flashback” chapter (112 and 113). Aronson’s knowledge and passion for her subject are presented in a way that lifts hardworking readers up to her level.

Aronson, as well as her publisher and designer, have put tremendous energy into her product. The manual is functional so that gaps in people’s knowledge can be easily identified and addressed. She breaks the task of screenwriting down into small, manageable steps with interactive plans and informative charts that keep writers on track. Her book is a well-indexed balance of written word, graphic organizers, summaries and relevant homework reinforcement and reminders, laid out in a design th at iseasy to follow and engage with, such as the Development Strategies numbered in their own box style on the page, so that it’s visually intuitive to navigate Aronson’s categories of information and use the resource efficiently. Cohesive combinations of bullet lists, numbering systems, indents, bolded titles and subtitles, and a detailed, clear table of contents add to user-friendliness. She even leaves us with “25 Tips for Writing Under Pressure” so that there’s no excuse to give up (285).

Screenwriting Updated: New (and Conventional) Ways of Writing for the Screen is one of the most useful industry teaching tools for in-depth, meaningful work, whether you have only ten minutes to do a Development Strategy exercise or consult a chart for a specific scenario, or weeks of time to devote to the craft. Readers and workshop participants leave with helpful personal work, along with a balance of information, formula and patterns with uplifting encouragement to tackle their own scripts. I still recommend Robert McKee’s Story: Style, Structure, Substance, and the Principles of Screenwriting and Blake Snyder’s Save the Cat as preliminary reads for anyone interested in structure, but consider Aronson a paramount additional resource to screenwriting collections and the best stand-alone text in the field. Aronson writes for both beginners and seasoned screenwriters and is not afraid of depth. She offers a fine balance of simplicity and complexity, providing a bridge between knowledge and creativity, earning the respected title of teacher. Screenwriting Updated: New (and Conventional) Ways of Writing for the Screen is a book that not only breaks down challenging information into easy-to-understand charts, explained with contemporary and classic examples in the accompanying prose, but gets readers writing their own contained, focused screenplays one beat at a time. It is a must-have for anyone wanting keys to strengthening the writing, editing and rewriting process—the messy middle part of the journey—and an excellent resource for screenwriting and film studies curriculums.

 

Aronson, L. (2001). Screenwriting Updated: new (and Conventional) Ways of Writing for the Screen. Silman-James. Book.

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Setu, July 2025