Highly Recommended

This small book is to screenwriting what Strunk & White's "Elements of Style" is to prose composition. Tight, terse, and direct, the title belies the fact that this book distills the essential techniques and principles of screenwriting to a direct and clear form.

Like Strunk & White, this is not a particularly good introductory book. Rather, it is an excellent reminder. For example, what Froug says about character is true and accurate, but not extensive. Rather, he reminds you of everything you've read and learned elsewhere, providing a concise checklist of important aspects of character, plotting, dialog, writing, and so on.

This is a marvelous jewel of a book, which can be best appreciated as a summary and condensation of what many other screenwriting books say. It's not a good place to start, simply because it is so condensed. I strongly recommend reading other books on the subject before this one, but definitely picking this one up when one finally gets tired of reading and studying and is ready to sharpen the pencils and sit down to write.