Story Maps book review on Slingwords.com

Story Maps: How to Write a Screenplay has received another glowing review, from best-selling author Joan Reeves on her site, Slingwords.com. Here’s some excerpts from the review…

“In truth, I found this book to be brilliant.”

-Joan Reeves

Keep reading, and, by the end of the book, it’s as if you absorbed the structure. There’s a harmonic resonance between the story map structure and your writer’s consciousness.

In truth, I found this book to be brilliant.

Any book that gives lessons in the skill of blowing the reader away is a book writers need to read. From the Introduction to Dan’s closing, “Good luck and Happy Writing,” Story Maps delivers. Imagine sitting around a coffee shop or a bar and talking one-on-one to a movie-writing, storytelling pro like Dan Calvisi. A no-holds barred, no frills, tell-it-like-it-really-is, no sugar-coating conversation. That’s what reading this book is like.

As Slingwords.com is geared toward fiction writers, Joan’s review offers the perspective of the book author looking to learn more about screenwriting:

I can see how screenwriters would love it, but I know how fiction writers–whether novice or seasoned pro–would benefit tremendously by reading and using its techniques. Add this to your writing library today.

Please don’t think the book is composed only of structural templates. It’s not, and I don’t want anyone to not buy the book because they have that expectation. Story Maps gives you excerpts from actual screenplays, showing you the format and language on the page in use by pro screenwriters…tone, voice on the page, word choice, strong and active verbs, etc., as shown in excerpts from such screenplays as Juno, As Good As It Gets, Saving Private Ryan and even a sample scene that adapts the opening paragraph of Raymond Chandler’s The Big Sleep to screenplay format.

[Read the full review]

Read excerpts and purchase Story Maps
and Booster Pack #1 in a special bundled deal.
19 Story Maps of 19 great movies.