The Nutshell Technique: Crack the Secret of Successful Screenwriting

Authored by Jill Chamberlain, The Nutshell Technique is one of the highest rated screenwriting books on Amazon. Many writers and producers consider it an essential guide to story structure, and it is now taught in colleges all over the world.

 
 
 
 
 
Reviews

"A clever, fresh way of analyzing structure. I've added The Nutshell Technique to my own writing toolbox."
― Sam Roads, Editor
Creative Screenwriting magazine

"This is a book you can begin working from immediately. It's a detailed, focused, ferociously practical method for structuring a screenplay. Author Jill Chamberlain shows you exactly how to get the work done."

― Glenn Gers, Emmy-winning Writer
Screenwriter, Mad Money and Fracture (with Ryan Gosling & Anthony Hopkins)

"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 Borelli
Emmy-Nominated Writer, The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon

"A clever, fresh way of analyzing structure. I've added The Nutshell Technique to my own writing toolbox."

― Sam Roads, Editor
Creative Screenwriting magazine

“I love Jill’s Nutshell Technique! It’s the perfect balance between structure and freedom. It helps you structure your story without feeling formulaic.”

– Katherine Craft
HBO Access Fellowship recipient

"Jill Chamberlain may be the one to have finally cracked cinema's genetic code. In these pages, she has put together a fantastic tool set. The Nutshell Technique is a truly great method."

― Patrick Wright, Director, graduate film program, Maryland Institute College of Art, editor-producer on such films as the Academy Award-winning Music by Prudence

"When you get lost along the words-on-paper pathway (and you will), you can refer to your Nutshell outline and figure out your way back to the road."

- Amazon Reviewer May 3, 2017

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. "

- Amazon Reviewer, August 25, 2017

An amazing technique to identify weak spots in your story structure and address them early on. Even helps with clarifying a main character's intent, goals and direction for the arc. Don't start a new project until you read this book!

- Amazon Reviewer, September 2, 2017

 
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Work with the Author The Top-Rated Screenwriting Book on amazon

Jill invented The Nutshell Technique to illustrate story structure essentials.  The book, published in 2016, is a groundbreaking work in the crowded field of screenwriting books.

The technique works. Here's how:

  • You can easily apply it to your own script.

  • It immediately shows you where your structure is unsound.

  • It lets you move your focus from figuring out structure to actually writing.

  • You will write fewer drafts because you will catch issues with your script sooner.

 

About the Book

Jill Chamberlain’s book from University of Texas Press, The Nutshell Technique: Crack the Secret of Successful Screenwriting, is now available on Amazon and in fine bookstores everywhere. Of the over 3,000 books on screenwriting on Amazon, The Nutshell Technique ranks #1 in user ratings.

Since its publication in 2016, the book became an instant classic and the go-to manual many professionals swear by. Producer Callum Greene (Star Wars Episode 9, Crimson Peak, and The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug) said “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.”

The Nutshell Technique is on the syllabus for courses at University of Houston, University of Notre Dame, and the world renowned screenwriting program at Columbia University.

In the book, Chamberlain uses easy-to-follow diagrams to thoroughly explain how the Nutshell Technique can make or break a film script. She takes readers step-by-step through 30 classic and contemporary movies, showing how such dissimilar screenplays as Casablanca, Pulp Fiction, The Usual Suspects, Little Miss Sunshine, Juno, Silver Linings Playbook, and Argoall 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.

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