Aristotle's Poetics for Screenwriters: Storytelling Secrets From the Greatest Mind in Western Civilization

I have aspired to reading Aristotle’s Poetics, but I have difficulty with his language and references to plays of his day. He would have loved the media platforms of today, but he still would cringe because the basics of drama are often ignored. If you want to write so that you’ll hold the attention of the audience and take them on a journey, this book is for you. It’s been extremely helpful to my efforts in writing video lectures for my online students.

It's so wonderful and amazing that the writings of Aristotle are still with us, after 2,500 years!!! This great little book clarifies some of his somewhat obtuse comments to reveal what makes a great poem, or story.... or screenplay. I am writing a screenplay right now, about a married woman who is forced to confront her destiny when she unexpectedly meets a former lover in a Venus mining town teeming with corruption in the year 2482. This book is a great reminder of how to write!

Chapters are very easily digested. I had to read this book for a Creative Writing course and it helped a lot when considering what makes plots more believable and interesting. I think the author works hard to explain Aristotles Poetics in a modern and thoughtful lense.

A wonderful book for anyone in the throes of writing a screenplay. Helpful text to compare your work against. Might be a little difficult to totally understand for a writer who has never written before, but for someone like me who is transitioning from novelizing to screenplay writing, Poetics for Screenwriters will be a great aid. Thanks to Michael Tierno and Aristotle! It was fun to be able to easily connect to a wise and ancient mind through this book. Loved the part about the chorus.

I loved it, short and sweet a lot of good ideas, looks at the subject of screenwriting from a perspective a historian like myself will find enlightening. I had read Aristotle's poetics when I was in high school, this was a good refresher. I am an aspiring screenwriter and can use all of the help I can find. When reading books on screenwriting I always pay close attention to the bibliography and recommendations for further reading from the authors. This book was recommended by several of them and it is now in my library.It is an easy read, I found it quite useful, well written and a book worth savoring, you need to read this one chapter at a time and then think about what Mr. Tierno is saying and how it applies to you and your writing. Enjoy the read.

Pretty good. Not gunna lie. I mean I thought this thing was pretty damn good. It’s the truth. Bravo, baby!

I loved this book, but not enough to give it a five-star review, simply because it does not have an index. It's an easy read, and Tierno gives great examples. Short, concise, and informative, Tierno's book helps in every stage of writing, from outlining and pre-writing, to drafting and rewriting. Tierno gives hope along the way, and is not a gloomy look on the screenwriting business like so many other books are. So, give this book a chance. Just don't forget your highlighter

A fantastic, down to earth, insightful explanation of Aristotle's principles of Story & Drama and how they practically correspond to the craft of modern-day storytelling. Tierno gives excellent examples throughout the book of the secret success behind many famous films in cinema which follow the same principles as Aristotle articulated thousands of years ago. I would highly recommend this to any teacher or student in the narrative /dramatic arts.

Wonderful, of course. Aristotle took comedy seriously, and rightly so.Essential reading for screenwriters of all genres.

Essential reading for screenwriters

A MUST READ for any writer.

Good insight into story/screening writing to have a better chance of success

There is nothing more fulfilling than being told something you already knew - but only if you didn't know you already knew it. We all react to action and characters in similar ways - the question you must ask yourself as a writer is: do you know why this is? And do you know how to do it? This book then manages to answer those questions and much more, the last reviewer, Alain Ross,completely misses the point when he says that Tierno does not explain Aristotle clearly enough. Tierno makes clear that he is not writing the book to teach you how to read Aristotle's Poetics (although I must admit that I can now understand Aristotle much better after reading Tierno's book), but what Tierno has done is, he has translated his words into modern day English and he is directly telling us what is said and how we may want to go about screenwriting from that point on.I have been writing for 5 years and I certainly knew all the rules. But there is something extra special about this book, it's not a simple A B C, this is how you write, no, it's a retelling of a classic which in the end, encourages you to write from the soul.