The Nutshell Technique: Crack the Secret of Successful Screenwriting
The Nutshell Technique: Crack the Secret of Successful Screenwriting book cover

The Nutshell Technique: Crack the Secret of Successful Screenwriting

Paperback – March 1, 2016

by
Price
$18.42
Format
Paperback
Pages
224
Publisher
University of Texas Press
Publication Date
ISBN-13
978-1477303733
Dimensions
7 x 1.4 x 10 inches
Weight
1 pounds

Description

"Jill Chamberlain sets a new standard for plotting stories. Use the Nutshell Technique to crack your story." ― Han Jin-wonOscar-winning screenwriter of Parasite (Best Picture Oscar 2020) " The Nutshell Technique is like the Rosetta Stone: it cracks the code behind why we love the movies that we love. It goes way beyond tired old beat sheet formulas and instead guides you to organically write the story you want to tell." ― Callum GreeneProducer, Star Wars: Episode IX - The Rise of Skywalker; The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power "If you're only going to read one screenwriting book, make it The Nutshell Technique . Andxa0if you're going to read two screenwriting books, just read The Nutshell Technique twice. Because that's how good it is. Jill Chamberlain's take on storytelling is uniquely smart, simple, insightful, and, above all, useful. She has made my life as a writer and showrunner much easier." ― Jon BeckermanEmmy-winning Screenwriter and Creator/Showrunner, Ed, The Knights of Prosperity, Dinner with the Parents "One of the best books I've read about how to breakdown a story into its individual moving parts. The Nutshell Technique teaches you how to weave your main character into your plot to create an emotionally rich script, allowing you to brilliantly craft your story without being by the numbers. A uniquely helpful resource." ― Michael GoldbergTwo-time Emmy-winning screenwriter "Jill Chamberlain's Nutshell Technique has been a real eye opener and the magic panacea I've been searching for as a screenwriter. Through her process, being able to have a bird's eye view of a workable draft in just a few bullet points has been revelatory, forever changing the way I approach story." ―xa0David Gleeson Screenwriter, Tolkien "This is a book you can begin working from immediately. It's a detailed, focused, ferociously practical method for structuring a screenplay. Jill Chamberlain shows you exactly how to get the work done." ― Glenn Gers, Emmy-winning WriterScreenwriter, Mad Money and Fracture "I love the Nutshell Technique! I use the tools I learned from it with every script." ―xa0Kat Candler Showrunner, Queen Sugar "The Nutshell Technique is the most cogent, clearly articulated take on screenwriting the world has ever known. My scripts have gotten infinitely better because of it." ―xa0Peter Mattei Creator/Showrunner, Outsiders TV series "The Nutshell Technique saved me a ton of time. It actually made the writing easy. And I finally finished that script that I've been struggling with for years." ―xa0Ken Davenport Tony Award-winning Producer, Kinky Boots and Once on This Island "The best screenwriting book I've ever read, by far. Now I'm obsessed with the Nutshell Technique and can't stop applying it to every movie I see." ― Patrick BorelliEmmy-nominated Writer, The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon "I applied the Nutshell Technique to the script I am working on and instantly the script improved. The method is simple and very helpful. It's been awhile since I've read such a great screenwriting book." ― Jeong Seo-kyong Screenwriter, The Handmaiden "Jill Chamberlain may be the one to have finally cracked cinema's genetic code. A truly great method. " ― Patrick Wright, Director, graduate film program, Maryland Institute College of Art & Producer, Oscar-winning Music by Prudence Jill Chamberlain is a script consultant, screenwriting coach, and the founder of The Screenplay Workshop (thescreenplayworkshop.org). She has consulted on projects for major studios, for small independents, and for many, many spec screenwriters. She has taught her Nutshell Technique to thousands of screenwriters around the globe, and many of her clients and students have achieved success in Hollywood, having their screenplays optioned, sold, and made into award-winning feature films. Learn more and connect with Jill at jillchamberlain.com.

Features & Highlights

  • "The Nutshell Technique cracks the code behind why we love the movies that we love. It guides you to organically write the story
  • you
  • want to tell."
  • ― Callum Greene, Producer
  • Star Wars Episode IX: The Rise of Skywalker
  • Veteran script consultant Jill Chamberlain discovered in her work that an astounding 99 percent of first-time screenwriters don't know how to tell a story. What the 99 percent do instead is present a
  • situation
  • . In order to explain the difference, Chamberlain created the Nutshell Technique, a method whereby writers identify eight dynamic, interconnected elements that are required to successfully tell a story.Now, for the first time, Chamberlain presents her unique method in book form with
  • The Nutshell Technique: Crack the Secret of Successful Screenwriting
  • . Using easy-to-follow diagrams ("nutshells"), she thoroughly explains how the Nutshell Technique can make or break a film script. Chamberlain takes readers step-by-step through thirty classic and contemporary movies, showing how such dissimilar screenplays as
  • Casablanca, Chinatown, Pulp Fiction, The Usual Suspects, Little Miss Sunshine, Juno, Silver Linings Playbook
  • , and
  • Argo
  • all have the same system working behind the scenes, and she teaches readers exactly how to apply these principles to their own screenwriting. Learn the Nutshell Technique, and you'll discover how to turn a mere situation into a truly compelling screenplay story.Since its publication in 2016,
  • The Nutshell Technique: Crack the Secret of Successful Screenwriting
  • was an instant classic. It is the go-to manual many professionals swear by, and it's on the syllabus at film schools across the world including the world renowned screenwriting program at Columbia University. It has also been published in Mandarin Chinese, Korean, and Italian.

Customer Reviews

Rating Breakdown

★★★★★
60%
(398)
★★★★
25%
(166)
★★★
15%
(100)
★★
7%
(46)
★
-7%
(-46)

Most Helpful Reviews

✓ Verified Purchase

New and Innovative Approach

One of the things that became apparent when I was writing a regular column for Script Magazine was the incredible production of books on screenwriting.

Yet, despite the over-production of screenwriting theory books, there are some truly new and innovative books and theories out there. One of the best to come along in a long time is Jill Chamberlain's The Nutshell Technique. The book identifies eight interconnected elements required to tell a successful story. Interestingly, the book does not take up the trend to add and own more steps in screenplay structure but harkens back to the old three-step drama sequence of Aristotle and his modern incarnation in Syd Field.

Rather than proceed down a linear path in creating a story, Chamberlain (a script doctor, story consultant and coach) tells readers not to begin at the usual set-up but rather at what she calls "the point of no return." This is the event at the end of the first act that moves the story into the second act. No, this point is not the traditional "inciting" incident but something much more powerful in that the "point of no return" comes with a "catch" that sets up the second act and really the entire screenplay. In brief, the "point of no return" gives the protagonist what he/she wants in the opening of the screenplay but with a "catch" to this want.

For example, consider the film Tootsie. The "set-up want" of the protagonist (Dustin Hoffman) is a job and the "point of no return" is that he is offered a job in an opera role. The "catch" though is that he must pretend to be a woman. One of the (few) accepted principles of screenwriting is that the protagonist needs to start with some "flaw" at the beginning of the story that will become a "strength" (or not) at the end of the story. The flaw of the Tootsie protagonist is that he doesn't respect woman. The purpose of the "catch" is to test this beginning character "flaw" and do battle with it through the second act arriving at a new "strength" in his respect for women in act three.

Unlike most other screenwriting books and theories, The Nutshell Technique offers a visual view of this theory with little footsteps of the protagonist's story journey. It is almost like a board game where players go to different boxes. The boxes are blank for the screenwriter to fill in. The book explains how to fill in the boxes. Chamberlain offers two types of boxes: one for comedy and one for tragedy. But they're not the same idea one usually has of comedy and tragedy. Comedy is defined where a flaw at the beginning becomes a strength at the end and tragedy defined where a flaw at the beginning becomes a worse flaw at the end. The book offers thirty examples of the technique from leading films. The "comedy" diagram for Pulp Fiction and the "tragedy" diagram for The Social Network are shown below.

Are Hollywood's concerns that they are not telling the right types of stories a valid concern? And, if so, might the problem be located in the segmentation of screenwriting theory today? If the problem is fragmentation of story-telling techniques and methods, then Jill Chamberlain's The Nutshell Technique offers something new that doesn't add another theory to the theory heap in Hollywood. Rather, it allows screenwriters to see that old three-act structure in a totally new way. One is reminded of a famous quote from Proust. “The real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking new landscapes, but in having new eyes.” So it is with screenwriting. Chamberlains important book does not seek new screenwriting landscapes as much as it attempts to provide new "eyes" to screenwriters to see the old three-act story landscape in new ways.
51 people found this helpful
✓ Verified Purchase

Truly the Last Book You Will Ever Need on Screenwriting

The Nutshell Technique, by Jill Chamberlain, is hands down the best book I've ever read on the technique of Screenwriting! If you could only have one book in your arsenal, this here is it.

Trust me, I've read them all: Save the Cat, Truby, McKee, Syd Field, My Story Can Beat Up Your Story....the list goes on and on...and while all of the aforementioned books have their own merits and insightful tips, everything you need in a technique book can be found in Nutshell. Jill Chamberlain seriously hit a homerun with this one.

Simply stated: I have never seen a more clear, concise and logical explanation of what elements your screenplay MUST have to be a great "Story" and not just a good "Situation".

I'm a member of the Producers Guild of America and I've been fortunate enough to work in the Entertainment Industry for over a decade now. I read A TON of scripts every week....some are good, few are great, plenty are awful. After reading Jill's book I finally have a clear visual picture in my mind as to what makes a script work and what is missing from scripts that don't.

The Nutshell Technique is truly the last book you'll ever need on Screenwriting. Seriously, get it right now...You won't be disappointed!!
22 people found this helpful
✓ Verified Purchase

I liked it

I like this model because it is simple and direct, in addition to seeming correct, which to me adds up to "valuable." I have bought and read 30-40 screenplay books over the years, from Syd Field to Blake Snyder and David Howard. I liked them all. Maybe I like the Nutshell book having read the other ones, and having a grasp of the basics, to appreciate it.

However, Blake Synder struck me as a bit paint by numbers, whereas Nutshell is less complex, less pretentious and more able to accommodate a lot of possibilities. In particular, one of the concepts is the "set-up want," which amounts to a "throw-away want," meaning it's arbitrary, and can be changed later if it doesn't serve. The other authors seem committed to a rigid paradigm that if violated, will cause your screenplay to fail. I really can use a model with some flex in the system, because I can't come up with a full-blown, A to Z screenplay concept up front; it has to be worked through, at least for me. Not having had good success using the other models, I look forward to working with this one. At least I won't feel my story is fatally stricken if I deviate from one of the iron pillars of somebody's method.

The material from the other books is certainly useful, and I also look forward to incorporating many of the other concepts found in them. However, I consider this already to be among the most useful of the screenplay books.
21 people found this helpful
✓ Verified Purchase

Overly complicated and convoluted writing....!

I found this to be written in such a convoluted and verbose manner that I almost just chucked it. After having read it through, while I appreciate the diagram and insights, it could have been written in a much more concise and clear manner.

This book should have been edited! If it were I reckon it would have been a quarter of what it was, even with all the examples which were appreciated. Ugh! Even a physics book is easier to grapple.
14 people found this helpful
✓ Verified Purchase

If you need a screenplay blueprint, this is it!

Jill has taken a big mystery for any writer wishing to learn to write a screenplay and narrowed it down so neatly anybody can take a crack at writing this way. When I first decided to write screenplays, I looked for an instructor and fortunately, I found Jill Chamberlain's Screenwriters Workshop in Austin, TX. Of all writing styles, screenwriting is the most technical. There are indeed elements which are required and exist in each and every successful film. In The Nutshell Technique, you will learn how to formulate the elements of a screenplay in a way which is unique and different than most other how-to writing books. Not only does Jill show you how to do this, she also gives you data, with examples of how she has cracked the DNA code of screenwriting elements all the way back to Aristotle who originally wrote the book on drama. In her new book, The Nutshell Technique, Jill guides the reader and explains why these elements are so necessary. Buy this book if you are a new or seasoned screenwriter. It will give you a fresh look at how to get your work on the page.

I have taken Jill Chamberlain's Screenwriter's Workshop twice, back to back for 20 weeks. Best money ever spent, and now it's all right here in her book. You won't watch a film the same way again.
13 people found this helpful
✓ Verified Purchase

Organizing Creativity

The first thing you notice about Jill Chamberlain’s Nutshell Technique is the quality of the book: heavy stock, bold printing, and graphic layouts. Very professional. Easy to read and understand.
The second thing is that you suddenly realize you have in your hand a blank script outline form condensed into one page, ready to be filled in for every story idea that pops into you head - her 8 Elements. Collect the outlines in a loose-leaf notebook and you’ll have a wealth of ideas for future stories. Revise as inspiration hits you.
She forces you to fill in the blanks which help you summarize your story down to the basic elements around which you can build your script.
The third thing is that her 8 Elements enable you to consolidate the main theme of your current work then revise it by making it more coherent.
After forcing your unwieldy story into recognizable form, she spends the remainder of the book explaining how and why her 8 Elements are created and how they work together to build your screenplay. The final section of the book graphs out some 30 well-known movies and how each fits into her Nutshell.
All in all, a very good value for money and time spent, and an excellent approach to organizing your ideas that have a habit to flail about in all different directions.
7 people found this helpful
✓ Verified Purchase

A new approach for screenwriters

I hoped this book would help me in my screenwriting efforts. Sadly it did not. The technique presented just did not work for me. It's worth a look, but I would try to find a library copy. Browse it carefully. You might be able to get comfortable with it or not.
4 people found this helpful
✓ Verified Purchase

Great guidance for novice and expert screenwriters

Fantastic book for screenwriting. I tossed all the other ones I had. This is the only one you need.
4 people found this helpful
✓ Verified Purchase

HOW STORIES WORK: A CLEAR EXPOSITION

I am not a screenwriter, but one of my hobbies is exploring the power of stories to transform. Jill Chamberlain's book, THE NUTSHELL TECHNIQUE, is the clearest exposition of how stories work that I have ever read (and I have read a lot of books about "story"). I predict that you will thank Ms. Chamberlain for making her insights into story structure available for a wide audience. I now "nutshell" every story I read, and I am trying to use this marvelous tool for the movies I watch. Ms. Chamberlain's work has enriched my life.
4 people found this helpful
✓ Verified Purchase

Great read.

Helped clear up a lot of misconceptions from other screenwriting books. Her simple yet logical approach isn't cookie cutter, it's a roadmap that leaves you room to tell the story that you want to tell without getting in the way because of a rigid structure. It gives your story room to grow while making sure you have a solid story instead of a situation.
4 people found this helpful

Related Books