A professional screenwriting instructor shepherds would-be scribes around common hazards of his chosen field in this debut writing guide.

Gill has taught screenwriting for 20 years at such institutions as Drexel University, the University of North Carolina School of the Arts and East Carolina University, and he’s noticed a common pattern among his students. First-time screenwriters are generally excited and full of ideas—until they hit a wall: “It feels good until they get somewhere between pages 20–30,” he notes. “Then, they run out of things to write about. Why is there nowhere else to go? Why is it so short? Where is the rest of the story? What do they do now?”

There are plenty of possible reasons why screenwriters can feel stuck or why their screenplay isn’t working, but Gill asserts that he’s figured out the 10 most common mistakes that account for most of their woes. From the pitfalls of the concept-only screenplay—featuring an idea, but no story—to the clutter of unnecessary characters and pointless scenes, Gill takes the listener through each mistake in turn, explaining how they come about and how writers can fix them, cut them, or avoid them entirely. Gill’s prose is smooth and conversational, and he has a way of explaining his concepts that will stick in readers’ memories. For example, he warns screenwriters not to select their genre before figuring out the emotional arc of the story—a mistake he describes as “writing from the outside in”: “Choosing a concept (or even a genre) first is like creating cake-shaped icing (concept) that you hope the actual cake (story) will fit into.”

The book is divided into problems in the first half and fixes in the second, effectively breaking things down before building listeners back up. Scattered throughout are 44 “screenwriting truths” that offer quick bits of wisdom. Listeners frustrated with their past screenwriting efforts will certainly come away with a new way of approaching future scripts. A comprehensive and well-presented set of writing tips.