The Coffee Break Screenwriter contains numerous short chapters that contain focused exercises to get your story ideas on the page. The exercises can be completed in consecutive progression, or the writer can skip around and do only the exercises that will be most helpful in your writing journey from ideation to final draft. The objective of all of the exercises is to get your thoughts out of the jungle of your mind and “on the page.”
The book starts with initial things that every screenwriter should lay down prior to writing a single word for a first draft, such as Main Character (MC) motivation, the premise of the story, the film’s logline, etc.
The book then proceeds to a brief chapter on Structure with three exercises to assist with structuring your story into a traditional film story structure. The worksheet for these exercises is good at assisting with breaking down the story into the framework of a 4-Act structure. Alessandra does not dwell on theory drama or screenwriting, and that’s a good thing. There are numerous other books, by McKee, Truby, Vogler, et. al. that are specifically focused on screenwriting theory, and go deeply into the theory of screenwriting. Coffee Break Screenwriter is not a screenwriting theory text.
Alessandra’s book continues with many chapters on various aspects of screenwriting. A couple chapters I particularly enjoyed were on Dialogue and Rewriting. They contain exercises and tools ,such as templates, to assist with organizing thoughts so that the screenwriter can march toward the ultimate goal of producing a final draft.
It’s a good, practical book that makes the screenwriter apply themselves to focused exercises that are meant to last no longer than 10 minutes, hence the title “Coffee Break Screenwriter.” I like the focused technique that the Alessandra espouses since a mere 10 minutes is the most that the majority of us can permit ourselves the luxury of creation in the busy, industrial world. The Coffee Break Screenwriter focused method is similar to the Pomodoro Technique of “getting stuff done.” It’s a method that, regardless of a fancy name, was used by writers of the pulps, whose primary motivation to write fast was the constant calls or knock on the door from a bill collector. It’s a technique that is used every November by thousands of aspiring writers participating in NANOWRIMO. But, it’s also more than writing at a fevered pace. It’s a series of structured mental calisthenics to allow the screenwriter to flex their storytelling talents into short, focused repetitions that build from ill-formed ideas into sharp dialogue partnered with a polished story arc in the form of a final draft. And I highly recommend it.
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