A readable and enjoyable guide to writing, and maintaining a writing career, from award-winning screenwriter Ron Hutchinson, based on anecdotes and real experiences from throughout his impressive 40 year career, and including stories about many famous films and people, including Tom Cruise, David Hockney, Marlon Brando, and Elizabeth Taylor, to name just a few.

You can't learn to write dramatic fiction by analysing other people's stage and screenplays.

You can't have a writing career unless you sell something.

The best way to teach story-telling is to tell a story with a good plot and vibrant characters which others want to read. 

The best way to take showbiz seriously is to think of it as a knock-about comedy in which you play a part. 

These are the foundations of this book which contains practical advice on such topics as how to organise each working session, deal with the pressures of deadlines, and how to react to requests for rewrites. These insights — all of them taken from real events — are illustrated by stories from Ron Hutchinson's own forty years as a professional writer, including thirty spent in Hollywood itself.

Listen to review on BBC Radio 2 Arts Show with Jonathan Ross

Reviewed on BBC Ulster John Toal's show

'Marlon Brando was my idol but he turned into a monster. He sabotaged my film' Screenwriter Ron Hutchinson reveals the bizarre truth behind one of the Hollywood giant's final films, The Island of Dr Moreau - The Guardian