Laurie Scheer - The Writers Advantage: A Tookit for Mastering Your Genre

Every page of The Writers Advantage offers remarkable discoveries on the art and craft of writing. Most significantly, Laurie Scheer seems to have cracked the code on why some Hollywood films hit and others completely miss the mark. Her amazing insights and analysis explores not only the form of genres, but their profound function as well inspiring writers to open their stories to amazing creative possibilities.

Dara Marks, Hollywoods #1 rated script consultant

Laurie Scheers The Writers Advantage is a wonderful handbook for bridging generational gaps in the world of writing and selling your material. That is only one of its attributes. It organizes a way of thinking and educating yourself to write and sell your material. It is filled with entertaining examples and at the end of each chapter is a sandbox full of tools to enhance your understanding of writing and selling material. Laurie has toiled successfully in the minefields of the entertainment business and she knows of what she speaks. The book is really fun and interactive. Cant recommend it highly enough to anyone who is interested in or wants to work in the entertainment field.

Joan Darling, actress and Emmy and DGA winning director

Gone are weak scripts and novel manuscripts based on one-dimensional ideas. Thats the promise here, and Laurie Scheer delivers. Shes cracked the puzzle as to how you make sure youre writing or buying an original idea. The Writers Advantage should be required reading for every writer and executive in the script and novel worlds as well as all students in MFA and screenwriting programs. This down-to-earth yet authoritative book shows you in masterful steps how to be original a huge feat. And it delivers by teaching us all how to find the core of a genres rules or conventions. Every exercise here is a superb gold nugget of storytelling technique. On your book shelf next to Syd Field, Christopher Vogler, Linda Seger, and maybe one or two other teachers who changed the writing industry, you need to add this essential media goddess Laurie Scheer.

Christine DeSmet, screenwriting instructor, award-winning screenwriter and mystery series author

Laurie Scheer takes her years as an industry professional, combined with her role as an educator, and blends the two in a text that is honest, engaging, and educational. Each chapter includes a Toolkit Sandbox, complete with excellent case studies, questions for critical thinking, and exercises to maximize understanding. As the title says, this book truly gives writers an advantage!

Wendy Moore, Full Sail University faculty and StayForTheCredits.net host

Laurie Scheers The Writers Advantage is without a doubt the best resource that Ive come across for writing genre, regardless of medium. With a focus on transmedia storytelling, Scheers book is both accessible and also a master class in story development.

Stefan Blitz, Forces of Geek

The Writers Advantage forces you to dig a little deeper for the core of an original idea. It gives you the resources to analyze and understand your audience so that you will be better able to deliver a satisfying storytelling experience.

Tom Farr, Tom Farr Reviews

The consummate guide to writing, pitching, and finding an audience. Indispensable for all creators.

Dave Watson, Movies Matter

Ive published many short essays and articles, but the concept of a novel (even chick lit) overwhelmed me. Then came The Writers Advantage a fun workbook with easy to use tools and techniques. Doing Laurie Scheers suggested genre research, and answering the questions she poses, has taken the anxiety out of the novel writing process for me. My characters have come to life, and their situations are more timely and amusing thanks to The Writers Advantage !

Ellen Nordberg, blogger, Treading the Twin Tsunami

Whether you are creating a novel, film script, web/TV series, memoir, play, game or transmedia project, The Writers Advantage is sure to become your new go-to writing resource! Author Laurie Scheer aka Media Goddess deftly guides you to shape, define and embrace your project, giving you the essential tools needed to strengthen and expand your storytelling voice and perspective. Of special note are the invaluable case studies, thought-provoking questions, and results-oriented exercises at the end of each chapter which are designed to jump-start your creative process, no matter what genre you may be pursuing.

Kathie Fong Yoneda, story consultant, workshop leader, author of The Script-Selling Game: A Hollywood Insiders Guide to Getting Your Script Sold and Produced (2nd edition)

As an agent, I often find that the most promising writers are those who not only create, but know how and why their creations work. The Writers Advantage is a wonderful resource that gets you thinking outside the covers on your way to becoming the author of the future: informed, targeted, and transmedia-savvy.

Gordon Warnock, founding partner, Foreword Literary

Laurie Scheer knows what so many writing instructors dont: that understanding how content is consumed, and who is consuming it, is just as crucial as craft. Shes given you The Writers Advantage . For Gods sake, take it.

Brad Schreiber, screenwriter, producer, consultant, author, What Are You Laughing At? How to Write Funny Screenplays, Stories and More

Seriously, thank you for writing this book. The exercises were really helpful. The 36 plots wonderful! The list of websites great! This book is very clear and not hard to get. This is about knowing the product your screenplay and knowing the reasons why it needs to be made. The only way it could be any better is if you could implant a chip in my brain so I can recall all this vital information with a blink of an eye.

Jane Barbara, writer/producer, Testa Dura Media/Women in Film & Video-DC Vice President, Chair, ScriptDC

Only someone with the depth and breadth of Laurie Scheers first-hand experience could create such an indispensable resource for all aspiring writers. The Writers Advantage is chock-full of effective tools, step-by-step instruction, and industry insights that will take your labor of love from concept, to pitch, to presentation, to a produced project. Eagerly read, successfully followed, and highly recommended.

Josie Brown, author, The Housewife Assassins Handbook series, and Totlandia series

To paraphrase Laurie Scheers Three Questions for Writers: Why make this book? To enlighten and candidly assist writers to understand the secrets that have been locked behind closed story development doors forever and how to navigate the road to success. The author has provided a toolbox and the way to take control of your writing destiny, with enormous first-hand information and understanding. Why make this book now? Because its needed! Its been missing for years. This book is certain to become a coveted document translated into many languages for writers all over the world. The myriad of tools inside the toolbox is destined for the writers computer for instant ready reference. The Writers Advantage sets the reader on the way to becoming their own private development department. Who cares about this book? Everybody who is a writer or desires to become a writer. The secrets are out of the box, written by a person who has been through the doors and maneuvered through the trenches. The only thing missing from this book is what to wear on the day of your meeting and the shortest distance from your home or office to the place of your meeting so that youre a few minutes early.

Cynthia Comsky, Chair of PLAYdate at the Ebell of Los Angeles, Ebell Playwright Prize, 2nd Wednesdays at the Ebell and Co-Chair of Ebell Social Services Committee; former TV executive producer

Brings great value to book authors in advising them to view their writing through the lens of film and TV trends, in particular to (1) know their genre, including its history and evolution; (2) understand their particular dramatic situation, and (3) identify and write for their audience, which as a rule all have shortening attention spans, and are consuming content across multiple platforms.