About the Book
It’s All About Story!
The Art of the Screenplay — a comprehensive master course and reference guide.
The craft of screenwriting is scattered across dozens of guides that too often contradict each other. This book gathers it into one clear, example-driven system — the kind you read once and reference forever.
It’s All About Story! grew out of a simple frustration: no single source explained, plainly and with enough examples, how the elements of a screenplay actually work and when to use them. After studying the popular books — long on humor, short on content — and downloading thousands of professional scripts, author Dallas Jones kept finding the same gaps everywhere: inconsistent formatting, weak writing, and a shortage of original storytelling. This book is his answer.
What it’s built on
One conviction sits at the center: the ability to tell an original, compelling story is what separates a script that sells from the roughly 100,000 generated every year that don’t. From there the book teaches the craft that gets a reader, agent, or producer to actually notice your work — and the techniques of “Human Deep Learning” are woven throughout to expand your creativity and help you shape stories that capture a reader’s imagination.
What’s inside
- Script Sections. Action, character, and the full range of dialogue — exposition, subtext, dramatic irony — plus scene headings and transitions.
- Story Concepts. Conflict, genre, plot and sub-plots, structure, suspense, theme, and voice: the storytelling beneath the format.
- Screenplay Elements. A working glossary of every shot, cut, and notation you’ll meet, from FADE IN: to THE END.
- Common Mistakes. Dozens of the errors that send scripts straight to the trash — and exactly how to fix each one.
Who it’s for
It’s written for anyone who believes they have what it takes in one of the world’s most competitive industries. There are no shortcuts promised here — only the tools, and the honest guidance, to develop real talent. The eBook is a living document, updated often with new topics and examples, and it’s backed by a freely downloadable library of 3,300+ film and 2,000+ TV scripts. Dallas Jones is a produced screenwriter with IMDB credits who has written more than a dozen scripts across every genre and critiqued hundreds more.
A guiding principle runs through all of it: screenwriting isn’t ancient Latin set in stone. It’s an ever-evolving set of guidelines for turning a story idea into an entertaining film.