Tough Love Screenwriting

It's very rare in the industry to find someone who can tell it to you STRAIGHT. So many books are written by folks who don't actually write screenplays, or at the very least SOLD screenplays. These people may know how to write and write well, but they don't know what it is like to be a working writer in Hollywood. To be that guy or girl, in the trenches, working on draft after draft. The writer who can juggle a producer notes and colorful executive personalities with equal aplomb. The person that can take a project from gummy laptop screen to the silver screen.

John Jarrell is that guy.

I cannot emphasize how critically important John has been to my development as a writer. I have taken many classes, read countless books, and still I was only making minimal improvements. It wasn't until I stumbled into Tweak Class in the Fall of 2012, skeptical if not downright cynical, that it all changed for me. John broke me down and built me back up as a screenwriter. He pushed me past my limits, past even my expectations of what I could do. In my drafts, John taught me that "good enough" is only the beginning. He pushed me further than I ever thought possible. Now, after years of getting nowhere, I am a repped writer who's getting meetings around town based on my work. Boom.

This is why this book is critically important. If you want to work, a legit screenwriter, this is the only book you need. John doesn't waste your time. He calls bulls*** on hackneyed character development, trite dialogue, and the generic, unoriginal flotsam and jetsam clogging your creative mind.

Read closely and take it all to heart. It's all here, wrapped up in a wickedly funny and insightful package that costs less than a cold press juice at the Santa Monica Farmer's Market.

As of mid-February 2015, an Amazon search of the term “screenwriting” yields 2,220 books: if you’re a would-be screenwriter with “analysis paralysis” and a proclivity for procrastination -- like someone I’m all-too-familiar with, *ahem* -- that's more than enough reading to keep you from actually writing for the rest of your life.

Even if you just read 1% of them, that’s still nearly two dozen books. Which of them are actually *worth your time*? Especially when so many routinely offer "guidance" that is redundant, rehashed, irrelevant, or uninformed by practical, hands-on, industry experience.

Right out of the gates, John Jarrell's Tough Love Screenwriting separates itself from the pack: within pages it’s clear that the depth and substance Jarrell's twenty-plus years working in Hollywood make this book a cut above the rest.

The book's central theme is this: screenwriting is not for the meek, timid or glass-jawed -- it’s a brutal, soulless business, and if you achieve any measure of success during your journey you'll inevitably encounter people who’ll make Jarrell’s “tough love” approach seem downright cuddly by comparison.

As Jarrell himself characterizes it, this is not a “How To” book: it’s partly a memoir, but mostly it’s the screenwriting/film business equivalent of O'Reilly Media’s Missing Manual computer technology series. And while the book does have a chapter entitled “Screenwriting 101” touching upon important fundamentals, it excels at covering ground that few (if any) screenwriting books ever have.

Case in point: the book’s invaluable insider’s view of WGA Credit Arbitration -- a process that most writers whose scripts are produced into films are likely to endure. The difference between success and failure in WGA Credit Arbitration can literally cost a writer hundreds of thousands of dollars; consequently, as Jarrell puts it, “There is *nothing* more important for a screenwriter than winning Arbitration and getting credit on a film they’ve written. NOTHING.” Almost twenty percent of the book is dedicated to this topic -- *that’s* how important it is.

Jarrell not only talks the talk, he walks the walk: he has personally prevailed in multiple Arbitration proceedings, served as a WGA Arbiter dozens of times, and currently sits on the WGA Screen Credits Committee working Pre-Arbitration and Policy Review Board Hearings. This is a man and a writer who has *lived* it, and the insights into this process that he shares in Tough Love Screenwriting are unprecedented to my knowledge and they’ll be the definitive standard against which all subsequent takes on the subject will be judged.

Did I mention it's funny as well -- laugh out-loud, truth-is-stranger-than-fiction funny? Well it is, in its own irreverent way: in MPAA terms, this book would earn the literary equivalent of a “hard R rating” for language. :-)

Put it this way: Jarrell doesn’t use all of George Carlin’s "Seven Words You Can Never Say on Television" in the book, but he *does* employ four of them in one sentence alone (and five of the seven altogether) in the book’s opening pages wherein Jarrell addresses his colorful use of language. (Uptight readers who blanch at f-bomb may find themselves in deep water on this front.)

For those who might be put off by the writer's "voice" in Tough Love Screenwriting, what I said earlier bears repeating: the world of screenwriting Jarrell portrays is not for the meek, timid, or glass-jawed. Neither is the experience of reading his book, but the risk is worth the reward.

So is Tough Love Screenwriting worth your time and the (quite modest) expense? Absolutely. Given the treasure trove of writer's wisdom it contains, it'd be a bargain at twice the cost -- and an outright steal for the price.

Only time will tell whether Tough Love Screenwriting ultimately joins the pantheon of "essential" screenwriting books such as Syd Field's Screenplay and Dave Trottier's The Screenwriter's Bible. Regardless, Tough Love Screenwriting is a welcome departure from the endless parade of cottage-industry tomes being churned out by the largely inexperienced and uninformed. Jarrell bravely serves up the “real shit” in this playbook of how things really work -- not to mention solid advice on how to make your screenplay legit on the professional level. Any writer -- from novice to working professional -- will be well-served by treating themselves to this fast, fun, super-informative read. Highly recommended.