My book SCREENWRITING THEY CAN'T RESIST is out!

My antidote to the existential despair of trying to write a screenplay with the formulaic tent-pole template espoused by the self-proclaimed screenwriting 'experts' is now out.





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Here's the jacket blurb:

If you want to create screenplays that are derivative, formulaic and forgettable. If you’re looking for another manual that paralyses your creative brain and shows you how to use a tent pole to write your script. If you want to experience the existential despair of trying to fit your story into a rigid structure designed to be universally applied to all scripts, this book isn’t for you.

But if, like the most distinctive and exciting screenwriters today, you want to write bold, innovative, outstanding screenplays which are full of emotional depth, disturb and challenge your audience, and have a real chance of getting developed,
this book will help you.

It offers a radically new and provocative approach for writers who want to discover how to create screenplays that are daring, inventive and wholly original.

Out go the ‘3-Act Structure’ and other rigid structural constraints that lead only to existential despair. Instead, the focus is on orchestrating all the elements of the script around the central imperative of all storytelling, which Kiernan calls Emotional Pull.

There are intensive, practical workouts and unorthodox ideas and inspirations to show how the writer can develop for themselves the most imaginative and powerful ways to shape their unique creative vision and storytelling instincts to create screenplays of originality and solid market potential.

There are URLs to video clips, movie scripts and interviews with great screenwriters as well.

Screenwriting They Can’t Resist: How To Create Screenplays of Originality and Cinematic Power is for writers passionate about the wondrous potential of cinematic storytelling, who want their screenplays to challenge and disturb, excite and exhilarate an audience, and leave them emotionally and mentally stretched.
Screenwriter, script consultant and award-winning playwright Pauline Kiernan is also a distinguished Shakespeare scholar and a visiting screenwriting tutor at the University of Oxford.

The book is available at Barnes & Noble and Amazon.

SCREENWRITING THEY CAN'T RESIST. How to Create Screenplays of Originality and Cinematic Power. Explode the Rules.  

By Pauline Kiernan. 

Quaere Publishing

Golden Globes - One Day To Go! Here's Full List of Nominations

Tomorrow, Sunday 16 January, we'll know who's won the Golden Globe Awards for 2011.

Who do you think deserves Best Screenplay? The King's Speech and Social Network are hot favourites.
Here's the List:


Screenplay: Danny Boyle, Simon Beaufoy, 127 Hours; Lisa Cholodenko, Stuart Blumberg, The Kids Are All Right; Christopher Nolan, Inception; David Seidler, The King's Speech; Aaron Sorkin, The Social Network
Drama: Black Swan, The Fighter, Inception, The King's Speech, The Social Network

Director: Darren Aronofsky, Black Swan; David Fincher, The Social Network; Tom Hooper, The King's Speech; Christopher Nolan, Inception; David O Russell, The Fighter

Musical or Comedy: Alice in Wonderland, Burlesque, The Kids Are All Right, Red, The Tourist

Actor, Drama: Jesse Eisenberg, The Social Network; Colin Firth, The King's Speech; James Franco, 127 Hours; Ryan Gosling, Blue Valentine; Mark Wahlberg, The Fighter

Actress, Drama: Halle Berry, Frankie and Alice; Nicole Kidman, Rabbit Hole; Jennifer Lawrence, Winter's Bone; Natalie Portman, Black Swan; Michelle Williams, Blue Valentine
Supporting Actor: Christian Bale, The Fighter; Michael Douglas, Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps; Andrew Garfield, The Social Network; Jeremy Renner, The Town; Geoffrey Rush, The King's Speech

Actor, Musical or Comedy: Johnny Depp, Alice in Wonderland; Johnny Depp, The Tourist; Paul Giamatti, Barney's Version; Jake Gyllenhaal, Love and Other Drugs; Kevin Spacey, Casino Jack

Actress, Musical or Comedy: Annette Bening, The Kids Are All Right; Julianne Moore, The Kids Are All Right; Anne Hathaway, Love & Other Drugs; Angelina Jolie, The Tourist; Emma Stone, Easy A

Supporting Actress: Melissa Leo, The Fighter; Helena Bonham Carter, The King's Speech; Mila Kunis, Black Swan; Amy Adams, The Fighter; Jacki Weaver, Animal Kingdom

Foreign Language: Biutiful, The Concert, The Edge, I Am Love, In a Better World

Animated Film: Toy Story 3, The Illusionist, How to Train Your Dragon, Despicable Me, Tangled

Screenplay: Danny Boyle, Simon Beaufoy, 127 Hours; Lisa Cholodenko, Stuart Blumberg, The Kids Are All Right; Christopher Nolan, Inception; David Seidler, The King's Speech; Aaron Sorkin, The Social Network

Original Score: Alexandre Desplat, The King's Speech; Danny Elfman, Alice in Wonderland; A.R. Rahman, 127 Hours; Trent Reznor, Atticus Ross, The Social Network; Hans Zimmer, Inception

Original Song: "Bound to You" (written by Samuel Dixon, Christina Aguilera, Sia Furler), Burlesque; "Coming Home" (written by Bob DiPiero, Tom Douglas, Hillary Lindsey, Troy Verges), Country Strong; "I See the Light" (written by Alan Menken, Glenn Slater), Tangled; "There's a Place for Us" (written by Carrie Underwood, David Hodges, Hillary Lindsey), The Chronicles of Narnia: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader; "You Haven't Seen the Last of Me," (written by Diane Warren), Burlesque