The Heart of Your Script
The Insider's Guide to Writing the Difficult Middle Section of a Screenplay
1st Edition
Will be published approx. on 25. December 2025
208 pages
E-Book
978-1-83902-813-7 (ISBN)
Description
While there are many guides to screenwriting, none of them tackle the specific difficulties of writing the tricky mid-section of the screenplay. The Heart of Your Script reveals the six key elements that are crucial for ensuring an emotionally satisfying and dramatically engaging center to any script.
Using a broad range of concise case studies, including contemporary films such as Aftersun (2022), The Whale (2022), Shoplifters (2018), Talk to Me (2022), Barbie (2023) and Oppenheimer (2023), canonical texts such as Back to the Future (1985), Seven Samurai (1954) and There Will Be Blood (2007) and cult classics like Swiss Army Man, (2016), Jennifer's Body (2009) and Heathers (1988), Ted Wilkes and Phil Hughes provide helpful tips and tricks to assist writers in finding out what is at the heart of the story they want to tell and how to ensure that it is coming through in their stories. Refusing any single method for structuring this central portion, Wilkes and Hughes offer a character-centred study, which allows aspiring screenwriters to map their dramatic journey from the inside out.
Using a broad range of concise case studies, including contemporary films such as Aftersun (2022), The Whale (2022), Shoplifters (2018), Talk to Me (2022), Barbie (2023) and Oppenheimer (2023), canonical texts such as Back to the Future (1985), Seven Samurai (1954) and There Will Be Blood (2007) and cult classics like Swiss Army Man, (2016), Jennifer's Body (2009) and Heathers (1988), Ted Wilkes and Phil Hughes provide helpful tips and tricks to assist writers in finding out what is at the heart of the story they want to tell and how to ensure that it is coming through in their stories. Refusing any single method for structuring this central portion, Wilkes and Hughes offer a character-centred study, which allows aspiring screenwriters to map their dramatic journey from the inside out.
More details
Edition
1. Auflage
Language
English
Place of publication
United Kingdom
Publishing group
Bloomsbury Publishing PLC
Illustrations
6 bw illus
ISBN-13
978-1-83902-813-7 (9781839028137)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions
Ted Wilkes | Phil Hughes
The Heart of Your Script
The Insider's Guide to Writing the Difficult Middle Section of a Screenplay
Book
approx. 01/2026
BFI Publishing
€27.50
Not yet published
Persons
Ted Wilkes is Senior Lecturer in Screenwriting at University for the Creative Arts, UK.
Phil Hughes is Senior Lecturer and course leader in Film & Screen at Regent's University London, UK.
Phil Hughes is Senior Lecturer and course leader in Film & Screen at Regent's University London, UK.
Content
1 The mechanics
2 Willing
3 Unknowing
4 Unable to believe
5 Accidental
6 Mistaken
7 Willing case study: Inside Out 2 (2024)
8 Unknowing case study: The Fall Guy (2024)
9 Unable-to-believe case study: Barbie (2023)
10 Accidental case study: Everything Everywhere All at Once (2022)
11 Mistaken case study: Talk to Me (2023)
12 Character Is Structure does TV
2 Willing
3 Unknowing
4 Unable to believe
5 Accidental
6 Mistaken
7 Willing case study: Inside Out 2 (2024)
8 Unknowing case study: The Fall Guy (2024)
9 Unable-to-believe case study: Barbie (2023)
10 Accidental case study: Everything Everywhere All at Once (2022)
11 Mistaken case study: Talk to Me (2023)
12 Character Is Structure does TV
