Blog #2, Learning Activity, Reading a Book

I chose to read a book called Screenwriting for Teens: The 100 Principles of Screenwriting Every Budding Writer Must Know. This book explains the basic elements of a film or television show. It teaches the reader how to create complex situations and characters.

This book helped lay a foundational knowledge for me. I learned the three basic situations that can create a plot, which are escape, reward and revenge. A plot that involves escape is about a protagonist that is seeking escape from some sort of physical, mental, or emotional bondage. Reward is a situation where a character is seeking a sort of reward that would better themselves, those around them, or society. Revenge is a situation that involves the main character seeking some sort of retribution for a deed that was done to them.

I also learned how to incorporate my vision or beliefs of the world around me, into my television show. I can use my plot to display a certain perception of the world around us. This makes the more relatable because viewers can connect the events in the show to real world issues.

Along with learning many things, this book was not a difficult read, and it was easy to understand. Each lesson provided an example of a movie to refer to that demonstrated this lesson in an understandable manner. Each lesson also supplied a few brainstorming techniques to use while I was in the process of writing my plotline. I enjoyed reading this book because it focused on a topic that I was truly interested in, and I learned a lot from it.