The Heart of Your Script

The Insider's Guide to Writing the Difficult Middle Section of a Screenplay

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by Ted Wilkes and Phil Hughes

Type

Didactic

Subject

Technique > Scriptwriting

Keywords

scriptwriting

Publishing date

2026 (January 22, 2026)

Publisher

BFI Publishing

Language

English

Relative size

Physical desc.

Paperback • 208 pages
6 ¼ x 9 ¼ inches (16 x 23.5 cm)

ISBN

978-1-83902-810-6

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Book Presentation:
While there are many guides to screenwriting, none of them tackle the specific difficulties of writing the tricky mid-section of the screenplay. The Heart of Your Script reveals the six key elements that are crucial for ensuring an emotionally satisfying and dramatically engaging center to any script.

Using a broad range of concise case studies, including contemporary films such as Aftersun (2022), The Whale (2022), Shoplifters (2018), Talk to Me (2022), Barbie (2023) and Oppenheimer (2023), canonical texts such as Back to the Future (1985), Seven Samurai (1954) and There Will Be Blood (2007) and cult classics like Swiss Army Man, (2016), Jennifer's Body (2009) and Heathers (1988), Ted Wilkes and Phil Hughes provide helpful tips and tricks to assist writers in finding out what is at the heart of the story they want to tell and how to ensure that it is coming through in their stories. Refusing any single method for structuring this central portion, Wilkes and Hughes offer a character-centred study, which allows aspiring screenwriters to map their dramatic journey from the inside out.

About the authors:
Ted Wilkes is lecturer in Screenwriting and Film & TV Studies, Regent's University London, UK.Phil Hughes is senior lecturer and course leader in Film & Screen (BA Hons), Regent's University London, UK.

See the publisher website: BFI Publishing