Crafting Short Screenplays That Connect

Crafting Short Screenplays That Connect, Sixth Edition, stands alone among

screenwriting books by emphasizing that human connection, though often

overlooked, is as essential to writing effective screenplays as conflict.

Award-winning writer and director Claudia Hunter Johnson teaches you

the all-important basics of dramatic technique and guides you through the

challenging craft of writing short screenplays with carefully focused

exercises of increasing length and complexity. In completing these exercises

and applying Johnson’s techniques and insights to your own work, you will

learn how to think more deeply about the screenwriter’s purpose, craft

effective patterns of human change, and strengthen your storytelling skills.

This 25th Anniversary Edition features 11 short screenplays, including

Academy Award winning Barry Jenkins’ (Moonlight, If Beale Street Could

Talk) luminous short film, My Josephine (now in the Criterion Collection),

and an accompanying companion website that features the completed films

and additional screenplay examples. The book has also been updated and

expanded to include more excerpts from leading films and TV series as well

as collaboration exercises and invaluable guidance about giving and receiving

effective feedback.

This ground-breaking book will show you how to advance and deepen your

screenwriting skills, increasing your ability to write richer, more resonant short

screenplays that will connect with your audience. It remains an absolute musthave

resource for students of screenwriting.