Book Review: Crazy Screenwriting Secrets
Reposted from its original September 2, 2019 publication in #LuxueySuiteMagazine.
Book review: Crazy Screenwriting Secrets, How to Capture A Global Audience (2019 ) by Weiko Lin. Michael Weise Productions 169 pgs (Nonfiction, Writing & Media)
There are many things I like a great deal about Weiko Lin’s new book Crazy Screenwriting Secrets. Lin frames the craft of screenwriting and storytelling with the new metaphor of eating meals at restaurants, telling your story in a global fashion to meet the demand for international distribution, and other creative structures. It’s laconic in its explanations and descriptions. It moves quickly and avoids belaboring topics, like writing habits, mindset approaches, and moving forward after defeats.
The author’s lively personality bounces off the page as he relates real life accounts of life in The Game, and failures as well as successes.
The writing style is upbeat, enthusiastic, and encouraging. Nowhere did I feel preached to or like I had heard this over and over again. What I did find is his humor and his honesty refreshing. The book moves quickly and covers a great deal of screenwriting in the new media.
While I didn’t find Lin to criticize other structuralists and story theorists, I found at times wanting more explanation on how to incorporate what has already been taught, written, and said into Lin’s new methods. What saves the day though, is clearly Lin’s personality! Not only is his writing style fresh and to the point, but his humor and humanity come through.
Having had the opportunity to see Lin present and discuss his book upon publication, its clear his personality that jumps off the page and through each chapter bounces off the stage and into your lap.
Wanting even more of Lin’s style, I sought out multiple online videos of Lynn teaching and presenting. What I liked most was the way in writing as well as live teaches in easily digestible and understandable ways. Without naming specific screenwriting gurus, some of the theories are so complicated that a script or story can suffer just by reading their books. Not here! The entire read I felt Lin kept me in mind.
Perhaps I’ve become bias from seeing Lin present before a large and eager Barnes & Noble crowd, but perhaps instead I’m delighted there’s a new and young voice (multi cultural) with new ideas on an old topic? Either way, I’m crazy for CRAZY SCREENWRITING SECRETS.
Available in book stores everywhere and online. $29.95
Michael J. Herman, Executive Editor